“So much happened in 2015!” Ok, that is likely the most overused & cliché way to open up a post like this but it is the absolute truth. Honestly, this past year might have been the most emotional, action packed, life direction altering, monumental movement making, overall major year I’ve ever experienced.
I remember last January very clearly. I didn’t travel for the holidays and spent the entire winter break from my university job working on launching this very website and blog.
Though I was already operating my online shop, I had more to offer and share. I knew I wanted to quit my full-time job and needed some changes in my life but I wasn’t sure when I could make them happen.
Seriously, if someone were to give January 2015 Cat an update about what January 2016 Cat is up to, I probably would not have believed it.
This weekend I settled in for my yearly New Year's journal session consisting of documenting memories and life events from the past year, listing personal highs and lows, reflecting on my business, brand, and professional life, and. . . .a new addition. . .Pic Stitch-ing several 2015 photo highlight collages which you will also have the pleasure of viewing today.
Though I won't share everything (like you'd want to read all of that anyway), I will share my major highlights and hardest bits from 2015:
2015 HIGHLIGHTS
- Being part of the New Leaders Council of Louisiana and developing close friendships with many of my cohort members!
- Travel & trips (Chicago, Minnesota 4 times, Boston, the beach (Alabama/Florida) – twice, Miami, Dallas & Commerce, TX)
- Celebrating the marriages of some of my best friends and spending time with so many beautiful friends on my various trips.
- Reentering the dating world and absolutely loving every minute of it.
- Connecting with fabulous au pairs within my part-time role with Cultural Care Au Pair.
- Developing an off the chain Snapchat game.
- Leaving my full-time job.
- Writing a workbook!
- Having my very best semester adjunct instructing! (I was basically on fire this fall.)
- Creating a successful email course.
- Consistently posting quality, stylish, thrifted plus-size fashions weekly in my shop.
- Having several successful pop-up shops.
- Getting positive, heartfelt responses from clients and customers.
- Developing online & in-real-life relationships and connections with so many #WomenOnAMission around me.
HARDEST BITS
- Discovering that working from home can be kind of a lonely road. (I LOVE me-time! Loooove it. But, y’all, there is such a thing as too much alone time!)
- Not reaching my financial goals. (Both in managing money/budgeting and not generating as much money as I need with my business. Dramatic deficits.)
- Realizing that just because I am excited about something doesn’t mean folks will be flocking to read/buy/support it. (Which can be disheartening.)
- Ending a long-term relationship. (Which was hard and still is a little hard – especially if I’m listening to Adele.)
- Managing my time and feeling productive. (When I was working full-time, I rationalized never completing my to-do list because I was working a full-time job, adjuncting, and running my business. Well, my to-do lists still never gets completed.)
- Struggling to decide which idea(s) to pursue now and which to flesh out later. (I have SO MANY IDEAS. Always. Who the fuck knows which one is gonna be lucrative and fulfilling and which ones won’t?)
- Two big moves. (One across town with a ton of stuff and another across country with considerably less belongings.)
HERE'S TO 2016!
2015 was major in lots of ways ranging from excellent to awful. I have a personal theory about my life where my even calendar years are better than my odd years. It's a definite trend! While I like to think even numbers have some kind of positive impact on me, it's probably just because I graduated high school in an odd year thus making odd years full of more transition and challenges than the even ones. In any case, I am so happy to welcome 2016 as a year where I can settle in to the developments and transitions that life gave me in 2015. Here's to 2016!