I wasn’t sure if I would make it, or what would come of it, or how it would go, but I knew I wanted to do it. Some days were easier than others, but I did it and learned some lessons along the day.
30 Day Challenges
I have four days left in my NoBloPoMo challenge and I’m really proud of how far I’ve come. It hasn’t always been easy, but I’ve managed to write every day (I consider a day before I go to bed, not necessarily midnight). While my posts have been random, they’ve been getting done and I’m proud that I’ve managed to stay on task and focussed so far. And I’ve been getting it done, even with being out of town and what not.
Win or Learn
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” I have no idea where I heard that quote or who it’s attributed to, but it was running through my head today.
Spreading the Joy of Snail Mail
Writing is that loyal love that always makes me feel great, yet I neglect. Whenever I make the time for it, I feel empowered and more creative and genuinely happy. It’s my way of taking all of the thoughts, ideas, and feelings that I have running amuck in my head and getting them out. Then why don’t I do it all the time? I don’t have an answer for that, just excuses.
Last year, I decided to no longer neglect my loyal love and to dedicate more time to writing. I set a stretch goal of writing every single day. And not just jotting down an idea on the Notes section of my phone or scribbling in a journal, but writing to someone. Every. Single. Day. Whether it be a 3 page letter, a post card from a new destination or even a quick hello on hotel stationary, I was going to be writing. To connect with people through prose. To spread the joy only snail mail can provide. To improve my penmanship because even I can’t read it sometimes. To commit to something.
Reigniting My Love for Reading
Reading 1000 books is on my bucket list, number 16 if we’re being specific. As a kid, I used to go to the library almost every week and check out as many books as I could carry. I would read these books late into the night, going into the bathroom for hours under the guise of using the potty when I was secretly just reading. I could finish Book It challenges in a week, easily earning my free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. My parents would punish me by taking away my library privileges when I misbehaved–which might be why I was such a good kid. In grade 2, I won a school wide contest for the most pages read in a month, and my school went from Kindergarten to grade 8. I was a bookworm and I loved it.
Travel Goals
When I started the year out, I had set a goal to visit at least one country a month this year. Then I got my special assignment that grounded me, so I set the goal of having year round tan lines–which has kind of happened, but I’m due for some sun, stat! With that said, I started the year strong with visits to Antigua, Senegal, Grenada and the Philippines by the end of March and continued with visits to Colombia, Croatia and Montenegro in the 6 months that followed.
Gratefully Grounded
7 months ago, I took a special assignment that took me out of the sky and grounded me for a while. I traded in my wings for a clicker and took a special assignment (a temporary assignment) with the Corporate Learning team at work as an Inflight Instructor.
Why would I stop living the glamorous, flexible, freeing lifestyle of a flight attendant to work in a normal, routine, job? For lots of little reasons and one big one: routine.
My Bucket List
This whole blog started for a few reasons. As much as I love a good story, my memory isn’t what it used to be and this was going to be my way of capturing and documenting the stories and moments of my life. For a while, it always seemed like I was doing or preparing to do something on my bucket list. This list is a living document. I’ve added new ideas and experiences that have caught my attention.
30 Days, 30 Posts: Day 1 of NaBloPoMo
Today is November 1st. It’s the mark of many things. Halloween candy is on sale. The weather is cooling down here in Northern California so I’m swapping my tanks and sundresses for sweaters and boots. The holiday season is approaching and for the first time in years, I have the holidays off. Today marks 7 months of being in a different work role, one where I’m not flying around the country sleeping in hotel rooms, but rather in an office environment, instructing, and returning to my own bed at the end of the day. And it’s the countdown to the last few months of the year, that final push to reach those goals you had set at the beginning of the year or a chance to end the year strong.