2018 has been a strange year for me. It’s been my first year without a traditional office job, which provided a lot of structure and an easy way to find self-worth. Without that, I’ve had to learn a lot about what makes me satisfied. I always knew that travel and going places was an innate need of mine, but I also learned that simply getting on a plane was not going to make me satisfied with my life. There are a lot of things I found joy in, and a lot of things that caused me pain. I had to learn that without a traditional job, I needed to find purpose in more than just what freelance work I was able to get; I couldn’t expect my husband to make my happiness his job. In all honesty, I’m still learning that, and I think he’s still learning, too.
Throughout all this, with all the confusing and complicated emotion of change, I know that my 2018 was really, really incredible. I sat down to take inventory of all that I did, all that I was able to do because of my nontraditional new schedule. Looking at these numbers, it may seem like my life has been a lot of fun. But there’s a good chance if you sat down and tallied up all the things you did this year, you’ve probably done just as many of the things you care about.
Here’s what I sought out in 2018:
Comedy Shows: 13
Theater: 16
Head Over Heels, Mean Girls, Dear Evan Hansen, Sleep No More, Hamilton, Soft Power, School of Rock, Aida (the opera, not the musical), Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, On Your Feet!, Miss Saigon, Waitress, Chicago, Cinderella, A Bronx Tale
Films: 13
Concerts: 4
John Oates (no Hall), Tom Jones, Jennifer Lopez, Rod Stewart
*If you took JLo off this list, how old would you think I am?
Museums & art installations: 12
Visited places within the US: 23
Las Vegas, Kauai, Charleston/Hilton Head/Savannah, Disney World, NYC, Malibu, Palm Springs, Temecula, Vegas again, Chicago + Iowa, Boston, Chico, Paso Robles, Palm Springs again, Spokane, Portland, Miami, Key West, Palm Springs again, Maui, Las Vegas again, Palm Springs again, Paso Robles again (today!)
Countries visited: 5
Flights taken: 34
*Not including layovers or multi-leg flights to one destination
Wineries visited: 20
*That number is growing today — we’re in Paso Robles for NYE!
Distilleries visited: 8
Breweries visited: 4
* I guess 2018 was the year I stopped drinking beer: normally this would be a much higher number!
Bottles of wine purchased: 82
Rewards program (legit) status achieved: 3
Sephora VIB Rouge
Alaska Airlines MVP
Hotels.com Gold
What did you do in spades in 2018? Do any of your numbers rival mine?