I woke up this past Saturday and the first thought that popped into my mind was: “It’s our wedding anniversary. A year ago, I said ‘I Do’ to this crazy dude. And oh my god, in two weeks, we’ll be on a plane to Bangkok!” 

I wanted to do something a little different and give a mini life update of my thoughts, feelings, and what I’ve been up to. Admittedly, it’s been hard though it all to stick to a consistent blogging schedule, but I’m hoping that when the dust settles and we’re in Bangkok, I’ll be blogging more regularly.

 Doing things that spark joy , and eliminating toxic people from your life

I started this blog as a creative outlet from my full-time job. I’ve always loved reading and writing and grew up writing fan fiction and role playing on message boards (nerd alert?). I lost all of that, and myself, when I went to college. The pressure “to be cool” was too much.

I never drank in high school, and started drinking in college. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but at the time, partying felt like the only way I would make friends. Nights that had been normally spent reading, writing, and playing video games became nights going to frat parties. I dumbed myself down to try and have something in common with the other women my age. I tried to learn about pop-culture, desperately reading pop culture blogs like Perez Hilton and watching trashy TV to assimilate. Despite trying to fit in and trying “to be cool”, I still never fit in. Obviously. People saw right through me. I was trying to be someone I wasn’t. What’s worst, the corporate finance jock boyfriend I had at the time, told me to “keep my geekiness in the closet”. 19-year-old me took that to heart, and I completely lost myself. I was surrounded by people I had nothing in common with. I was so desperate to get people to like me, that I never once took a second to ask myself, did I even like them? 

After college, I moved back in with my parents, got a dog, and began a ruthless journey to cut toxic people out of my life and only do things that sparked joy. I stopped partying with my college friends, that’s all they were interested in doing. I started to take my health and wellness seriously. It took years of eliminating toxic relationships, making tough choices, traveling, and a lot of self-reflection to get to where I am today!

By the time my wedding came around, I finally felt weightless, and I was (and am) the happiest I’ve ever been. It’s amazing how when you start to cut toxic people out, you suddenly have more time to focus and do things that truly make you happy. I started playing video games again, reading, writing, and making new, lifelong friends that have similar interests as me. I started blogging, and taking my interest in photography seriously. I’m learning video making, web, and graphic design. A lot goes into blogging and I’m passionate about everything that goes into it. I love to learn, and I love to create. Those things spark joy for me, so I’m going to chase that. I started this blog as a creative outlet, and it’s my passion project. I absolutely love creating. 

 1 Year Wedding Anniversary 

To be honest, not much has changed in a year of marriage other than mass amounts of paperwork. We’re still best friends that share each other’s passions, support each other, cheer each other on, and take each other out of our comfort zones. He’s the best partner I could ever ask for. We share the same dreams, we’re both crazy hardworking, and we’re both not afraid to take risks. We’re the perfect amount of different while sharing the perfect amount of similarities. Our relationship is anything but boring  When I image us old and grey, I imagine two crazy old people going on crazy hikes in Iceland (hopefully not having to be rescued like we had to on our honeymoon).

 What to pack, what to keep 

We’ve been packing up our whole house and that’s been a fun exercise in “What to pack, what to bring, what to donate, and what to trash.” There are a few things that I noticed in going through years of stuff.

• We accumulate a lot of unnecessary stuff over the years

• We end up keeping a lot of stuff out of guilt and not love

• I only use about 20% of my wardrobe. The other 80% just sits there.

With these realizations, I have a few new rules for myself:

• Learn to organize sentimental things into books or boxes

• Donate, sell, or trash unnecessary clutter

• Don’t buy new clothes unless you absolutely LOVE it, it’s multipurpose, and you’ll get a lot of use out of it.

Things I learned about myself:

• I’m not a clothes person! Kind of hard to admit because I do like to “look cute”, ya know ? But I’d rather mix-and-match fewer, trendier items than have a closet full of miscellaneous clothes. I absolutely love neutrals: black, tan, cream, white, denim, olive.

• I’m not into sentimental “things”. I love photos and handmade art. Other than that, I don’t like things. I socio-pathically had no problem (and even felt a sense of relief) donating things that I held onto over the years because of guilt. I would rather create memories with someone.

• Having less “things” give me joy! 

 How am I feeling 2 weeks before moving to Thailand? 

Every time I casually mention to someone that I’m moving to Thailand, I always get the question: “Have you ever been there before”? And I always laugh, say No, and continue to laugh. And laugh. Because it’s kind of hilarious. I’m the type of person that doesn’t like to just dip my toes in the water. I like to jump in head first. I’m so excited to get out of my comfort zone. I’m excited for new sights, smells, people. I want to feel out of place and lonely. I want to be challenged, I know that’s the only way I’ll grow as a human being. I’m so incredibly thankful for this opportunity. I’m thankful that I get to support John in completing his field work towards his PhD. I’m thankful for our families who have shown unwavering love and excitement (okay, some of them are very worried too). I’m thankful to be able to keep my full-time job and work remote. I’m thankful that the Universe gave me this opportunity, so I’m going to embrace it as hard as I can.

 What goes into moving two people and a dog across the globe? 

Allow me to clarify: going on vacation and moving are very, very different. We’ve been working hard for the last few months to take care of things such as: international health insurance, researching dog-friendly apartments in Bangkok (which are scarce), and packing up our entire house to be rented while we’re gone. Only a few airlines flying to Asia allow dogs in-cabin the entire trip. To be able to get Daisy over there safety, we needed to apply for an International Health Certificate so she doesn’t need to be quarantined. We needed to train her to love her carrier, which she’ll have to stay in for 17 hours. When we land in Thailand, the first week will be spent looking at apartments, opening a Thai bank account (so we can rent an apartment for a year), and signing up for new phone services. We’ve read countless blogs, called the Thai Embassy about 1,000 times (they are so wonderful and helpful!) and been doing endless amounts of research so that we leave no stone unturned. There are a lot of tiny details that go into moving and working in another country. It’s a lot of work, but it will be worth it!

 You’re a food blog. Where’s the food? 

I’m a currently a food blog with no food – ahhh! Our kitchen is under renovation, and 2 weeks before flying out admittedly we’ve been eating a lot of take-out and whatever-the-hell-we-have-laying-around. I promise that when I get settled in Bangkok, I’ll have all the wonderful foodie things to share! In the meantime, I’ve been buying new lenses for my camera and trying to work on back-end things on my blog, such as improving my site’s speed and renaming alt-tags and metadata to improve my SEO.

 Overall, I’m really excited to move to Thailand and to share this journey with you!