June
A few months into the pandemic, I realized COVID wasn’t going anywhere and people weren’t really hiring, so I put my dreams of moving to Boston on pause. The opportunity to move to South Portland seemed to align with my current situation, so I took it! (Not to mention, it was a month to month lease, so it did take a little pressure off of a big decision during such uncertain times). This was the first time I moved out of my mom’s house and lived on my own, which was definitely a financial adjustment but emotionally easier than I expected.
July
We officially moved in mid-June and started to get settled and enjoy the gorgeous location during a wonderful Maine summer. After 2 months, I was at my friend’s pool when I got a call from my mom’s best friend from high school. She worked at a private school in Boston and were looking for a varsity field hockey head coach and wasn’t sure if I would even consider moving to Boston in my lifetime. In that moment I was totally taken back. I had completely put my thoughts of moving to Boston on the back burner and just started to feel comfortable in my new home and new life.
I almost didn’t apply. I called my mom and told her and she told me, “Just apply and see what happens. It can’t hurt and you never know.” I took her up on it and applied to see if it was meant to be.
Simultaneously, one of my best friends from college got a job in Boston and was looking for a roommate and one of my best friends from high school was looking to relocate from NYC to Boston as well. Within the span of a week, I was offered a job, my friend from college got a job and my high school friend decided to move to Boston. The 3 of us quickly decided to look up some apartments just to see if it was even a possibility. Typically in Boston, you need to secure housing 6 months in advance, but the pandemic definitely changed the real estate climate in Boston, so we were able to find a few places to check out. After looking at 4 places, we had a clear winner in our minds and just applied to see if we were lucky enough to be considered. 2 days later, we heard back that we were accepted.
August
August was one of the hardest months of my life. Up until this point, the hardships I had faced in life were inflicted on me. I never was the one doing the harm. On August 1st, I made the decision to tell my landlord and roommate about moving to Boston and to remind my boss that I was in fact moving. My boss was definitely surprised and did not support my decision, which was difficult but necessary for me to learn to really stand up for myself, confidently.
To say I was heartbroken to tell my roommate, Liz, is an understatement. I felt like we were just starting to really get to know each other well and I truly cherished every second we spent together. It was painful to look her in the eyes and tell her I was leaving, because I knew I had just turned her world upside down. I know our paths were meant to cross and even though it was for a short amount of time, I learned so much from her and I will forever be grateful for that.
September
I moved into my new 3 bedroom apartment in Boston with 2 of my best friends and tapped into my love for coaching and field hockey. It was such a bizarre year to start coaching, because of the pandemic and having so few games, but words cannot describe how proud I was to coach this specific group of girls and I found out quickly that I loved coaching more than I thought I would.
November
Another month, another chapter. I knew going into Boston that I would move down here and figure it out along the way. That is exactly what I have been and am still doing.
I am excited to announce that I will be officially working full time at Follain! It has been a dream of mine for months to be able to work there. If you have been following me on Instagram, you will be familiar with my love and passion for cleaner personal care products and Follain is the retail mecca for clean beauty.
If you haven’t checked it out, here are my 5 Skincare Secrets! Just plug in your email and the PDF will be sent to you!
I am so excited to start yet another adventure this year. If you told me in November last year that I would be living in Brookline and working at Follain, I probably would have started to cry tears of joy.
Keep on the lookout, here on my blog, for more posts to come on the lessons I have earned from these pivotal moments in my life from this year. The goal of this blog was to lay out the framework for all the events have happened and then write some more blog posts on the lessons I learned from each of those moments.
Thank you all for supporting me throughout my journey and I wish you and your families a healthy and happy holiday season.