My Annual Overly-Introspective End-of-Year Blog Post 2018 Edition
There are only a few hours remaining of 2018 here in my part of the world. In fact, it’s already next year for many of you reading from points east. So I should really get to work on an end-of-the-year blog retrospective, huh?
Alright. Here we go, in super fast, abbreviated format: (please feel free to scroll past this to the next bold heading. It’s kinda boring but it makes a necessary point.)
My 2018 Travel “Adventures”
My Instagram Best 9 for 2018, featuring three photos set in my own living room!
January: Nights spent away from home: 9. I worked in Philadelphia a lot this month, and attended a meeting outside of Boston. Woo hoo! Exciting stuff!
February: Nights spent away from home: 11. I took a last minute trip to Disney World with my mom because the Eagles won the Super Bowl (long story) and worked in Philly some more as well as in the Hudson Valley.
March: Nights spent away from home: 8. Same as February, just minus Disney World.
April: Nights spent away from home: 8. Another work trip to the Boston area, as well as a week outside of Detroit, also for work. It snowed in both locations in April. I do not like snow. Fun times!
May: Nights spent away from home: 5. Annual Mother’s Day Disney World trip with mom.
June: Nights spent away from home: 3. Last-minute Ocean City Maryland beach trip with my husband. First-ever vlog episode created!
July: Nights spent away from home: 23. Yikes! Week-long conference in Scottsdale, AZ, a late flight back to the east coast for one day to attend a wedding and then another cross-country flight to Seattle and onward to Alaska on a 14-day cruise.
August: Nights spent away from home: 5. Work travel, mostly to the Hudson Valley and New England. This is one riveting update, isn’t it?
September: Nights spent away from home: 20. Work travel, almost all in New England.
October: Nights spent away from home: 13. Work travel and some personal family-related travel. Again mostly in New England.
November: Nights spent away from home: 1! Honestly not much.
December: Nights spent away from home: 8. Annual Christmas trip to Disney with mom (are you sensing a trend here?) and some personal family-related travel.
2018 Nights Spent Away From Home: 114
Well gee. That wasn’t very exciting now was it?
I will be the first to admit that this past year did not bring many travel adventures for me. And here’s the thing: I’m fine with that. And here’s the other thing: there’s a reason for that. And that reason is:
I am tired of being on the road.
Please note the number of nights I spent away from home this year. One hundred and fourteen. And this was my slowest year of travel in the past five years. If you subtract my super-fun summer vacation, you still end up with 95 nights on the road.
But wait, you say! Still, some of those 95 nights were spent in Disney World and at the beach, right? Right. However, it gets to the point where it does not matter. For example: I was invited to Chicago last May to visit friends. I had a flight booked and a place to stay and my bag was packed. And then two days before I was supposed to leave, I emailed my friends and said:
Sorry, I’m not coming. I just can’t. Like right now, if Jerry Garcia* came back from the grave and asked me to go on tour with him, I’d say: no, sorry, that job requires too much time on the road.
I just could not check into another hotel. So I spent that week at home with my dog.
*I’m a huge Grateful Dead fan, ok? So this would seem like a fun idea to me.
And then I spent the next half of the year working toward a life of less travel. Because if there’s one thing I pride myself on, it is making the changes I need to make my life work. After all, that’s how I got to this point to begin with. I was like: I want to travel more. And so I changed almost everything about my life, and boy did I travel more! Yes sir, I just snapped my fingers and POOF, I made my dream life of travel a reality!
Except that’s not true at all.
I didn’t snap my fingers. I worked for a year saving enough money to take a year off. And then I took a year off. And then I went BACK to my old location-dependent classroom-teacher job for an entire year before I found a way to work and make money while traveling. And then I lost that job. And then I took another almost-year finding another job which allowed me to travel.
It wasn’t a straight path, it wasn’t an easy path, and it wasn’t an immediate change.
Now it’s time for me to travel less. So I’m making changes to make that happen. 2019 shall be my year of being home. With my irish wolfhound lineage dogs. In my house. Maybe I’ll join a gym. Or at least be able to make a dentist appointment and keep it.
Just as soon as I get back from a conference in Orlando next week. And a week working in Jersey after that. Oh, and a day of work in New England the week after that.
Ok and a short trip back to Florida to visit my mom next month.
It’s not a straight path, it’s not an easy path, and it won’t be an immediate change.
And there lies my New Year’s Eve message for you and for me: as you embark upon a new year with goals and resolutions in your heart, do not get discouraged when change does not happen immediately. Change rarely happens immediately (unless, say, you get hit by a truck or something. But I hope that’s not on anyone’s list of to-dos for 2019!) Make your resolution this year to be kind to yourself as you struggle through the hard work it takes to make whatever life you desire a reality.
You got this. You just might not ‘get’ this until, like, April or May. Or November.
Happy New Year, all. May 2019 be your best year yet.
-xoxoxo
Tracy
As per your normal…. you are thinking things through. Good job paying attention to what your ‘self’ was telling you. In Ecclesiastes is an oft quoted and very apt scripture
1For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
And I would add, a time to wander and a time to stay at home… with your dogs and your husband and whomever else you choose to invite in (or no one else). How can you value the travel if you never spend time at home.
And how can yo value you if you never spend time with yourself. You do that well. I envy you your comfort with yourself.
Please continue to share your journey— even if you only wander within yourself. You are very interesting……..
Do you know what’s strange? I’ve had this stuck in my head for months now (the song version of course); I’ve even sent it to friends who are also planning to make changes in their lives. I’m not a bible person (at all; I wish I could be but I just am not) at least not in a ‘I believe in god’ kind of way. But there’s a lot of wisdom in there. This is an example of that.
Also: hi Toni! Glad you are still following along! I saw some of your recent concert adventures on IG! Glad you are still rockin’!
Just thought of another quote for you at this time… From JRR Tolkien
“All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken. A light from the shadows shall spring. Renewed shall be the blade that was broken. The crownless again shall be king.”
You are feeling a need to renew. Giving in to it is PERFETLY FINE! You were not lost when you wandered and your roots have always been deep. Go back to your roots and you will find your light.
Ah! Tolkien! Now you are speaking my language! <3