I came across the line on the above photo last week and felt that it fit my current life stage so well. I looked it up and it’s from a song in Beauty and the Beast, sung by Belle. Can we all admit that older Disney movies are way better than newer ones?!? Maybe with the exception of Frozen? Maybe.
Anyway, after a 12 day trip to Alaska and back, I’m thrilled to be embarking on yet another cross-country adventure. Two of my dearest friends are moving to Seattle and I’ll be road tripping with one of them to assist with the move. While I’m incredibly sad that Nashville is losing them (and have already cried — like a girl — on multiple occasions), I have another rare opportunity to see parts of this country that I’ve never crossed paths with: Vail, Arches National Park, Teton, Yellowstone, Seattle, and likely a day trip to Vancouver and Portland!
It’s gonna be all kinds of awesome.
And, as an added bonus, we’ll stay a night with friends who moved to Wyoming two years ago. It will be oh, so sweet to catch up with them and their cutie kiddos.
In talking about the two trips and the other random experiences I’ve had this year, I’ve gotten a strange amount of “I want your life” comments.
Just stop it.
Because amidst all of the fun things that have been happening lately, life hasn’t slowed down.
This past year has been strange. It started off with way more work than I anticipated, which was definitely a positive. Then, I went through a bit of a personal slump in early Spring. As a “creative” (which, for the record, I actually hate that term) and someone who can’t compartmentalize life very well, personal slumps have always translated to business slumps, too. The business kept coming and I survived, but I didn’t find myself loving my work, feeling good about it (or myself), or balancing any of it well. Ever. To be honest, unmotivated days come around here and there, but this was an extended period of time that I thought would never end.
Life. Was. Hard.
Thankfully, May arrived and the traveling picked up. I went skydiving, spent time with friends and family I hadn’t seen in years, captured a friend’s wedding, and spent a great deal of time evaluating, processing, and making tough decisions.
Life got better. Easier even.
The road trip from Alaska to Nashville fell in my lap and before I had even left for Anchorage the Seattle trip had become a possibility.
Lots of exciting and new things have happened for me this year and I feel incredibly thankful for them.
Right now, life is good. I’m happy.
But I don’t have to look back very far to know that it can turn at any moment. That the mountaintops can only be reached by traveling through the valleys. And even now, while feeling like I’m on a mountaintop, I still struggle. I still hurt. I still have mornings where I just don’t want to roll out of bed.
Why am I even sharing all of this?
Because I’ve shared a lot of the good lately and I’d rather be a little more real.**
So there you go. If you think that you want my life, there’s probably a few more details you should know!
**That doesn’t mean this post won’t disappear and be replaced with something a little less heavy at any moment. 😉
