Wait what?? I was just as shocked as you guys were! I can’t believe it’s been another year already. This day is very special because this time last year I was about to cross off a lot of things on the bucket list: going on a plane by myself for the first time, traveling outside the US for the first time, and living in a foreign country completely outside my comfort zone. I was a mix of terrified and excited. I was traveling to NYC for the second time but this time on my own with school, only to be shipped off again to Italy a couple weeks after. I didn’t speak a lick of Italian, I was the pickiest eater on the planet (hard to tell now), and I was having a hard time with school. I needed an outlet, an escape of sorts – so in comes the blog! I had been meaning to start one (that I would actually keep up with) for a LONG time. What do I mean by that? Well, for those of you who’ve know me for decades know this already but I actually had several “outlets” before this; I had not one, but two YouTube channels thinking I could do makeup tutorials. I was too shy at the time for that plus high school so those fizzled quick. Shortly afterwards, I had another blog before I, again, quit too early because of school and also putting too much pressure on myself to do all these things for it that I thought I “had” to do in order to make it great. Fast forward to junior year of college; more mature, knew more about my passions (with one yet to come – food!), and I was about to really push my limits. I wanted to do this right this time, like really do it. Plus, I don’t know about you but I feel like everyone and their mother starts a blog when they go abroad so everyone can see how they’re doing. So off I went and write I did. I kept it up for a while – at least once a week or two weeks. Then it started to level off; I was traveling a bunch and really wanted to enjoy my time there. Though it wasn’t a good idea from a blog perspective – I don’t regret it. I was able to live in the moment and really take in the culture of Florence, especially with the classes I took like wine pairing and cooking. That was a turning point for me; I had expanded my palate 10 times over and every meal that I tried during them I loved – a first for me! I was very inspired by it all and it’s how I started wanting to go to different restaurants all around the city back home. After I got back, school took over again but this time I knew that after school was done I would be able to take this to the next level. After starting work and being back home, I got my groove back and started meeting people through Instagram – fueling my creativity that much more. I went to events all over the place, meeting great connections along the way. This has been my favorite part right here. Making friends after college is hard and kinda scary, but so far I’m loving all the awesome people I’ve gotten to meet thus far with similar passions that I have (you know who you are). If I didn’t have the cheerleaders that I do, I think I would have quit on this again. This was the difference from all my other prior attempts: people. All of you help me stay motivated and reassure me that what I do is a good thing and honestly, sometimes I need to hear that (remember, the pressures I mentioned earlier?). So thank you, I love you and cheers to another year on my little piece of the internet. I have a lot of goals this year for it so stay tuned for more announcements and keep on reading!  

See you in the next post!