Journey to 35: Love & Gratitude
Thank you to everyone for all the calls, texts, posts, emails, DMs, etc today and throughout the month! I love you all and you’re special to me in my heart. I appreciate you being a part of my journey and growth as a human.
I have a lot of love in my life. Mom love. Friend love. Family love. Mentor love. Adventure love. Chanel puppy love. Travel love. Food love. Learning love.
I wrote all of the Journey to 35 posts the first week of October except this one. I struggled with this one. I struggled with how to write a closing post. I struggled with what to say. I struggled with reading the responses and being able to comprehend that people enjoyed my writing. I didn’t want to disappoint...but I knew I needed to be true to me. What would the last post say? Will it be as good as the others? While in Aruba it hit me...the most important thing on my journey to 35 is LOVE. I needed to step back from it all and be completely submerged in mindless, happy, fun, sun to see that love is at the core of it all.
I have the most amazing friends. They are my family. I am their family. I am so blessed by these humans.
I am so incredibly grateful for being wrapped in love. I had a birthday party every weekend this month with the finale in Aruba....yep, I’m that extra. It was awesome because I had an opportunity to spend quality time with my favorite people in smaller groups. It was awesome because no one felt like they only had one shot, one time that they could show up. It was awesome because friends from different groups and phases of my life met and enjoyed each other’s company. It was awesome because people got to do things they enjoy doing to celebrate me (not just what I enjoy doing). It was awesome because I got to do the things I love with lots of people I love.
Bosstober weekend #1...barre3 and brunch
Bosstober weekend #2...meditation class and steak dinner
Bosstober weekend #3...open house chicago tours and brunch
Bosstober weekend #4...Aruba
Oh and I can’t forget the surprise dinner when my birthday twin came to visit. We had such a magical dinner...catching up and not skipping a beat.
Ok, can we take a pause for the Aruba crew!!!! 6 women that didn’t all know each other coming from different cities all for me? 6 women all at different phases of life. 6 women all with different backgrounds, education & perspectives on life. 6 fierce, loving, chill, kind hearted, beautiful women! 6 women that trusted me to plan a vacay. This is CRAZY amazing and generous of them! And to top it off they surprised me at EVERY turn...and I’m not easy to surprise (even though I love being surprised)! They’d been collaborating with each other and brought all of my favorite things...including my favorite cookies, champagne, slippers, table decor, headbands, etc. They all got along beautifully. They’ve already started planning times to hang out with each other post trip. They’ve already started planning our next girls trip. I’m stunned. I’m thankful. I’m amazed. I’m not wanting it to end...but it has.
The picture is us on the beach laughing and enjoying each other’s company...what we did for 4 beautiful days.
So, the absolute greatest thing on my journey to 35 was realizing just how much love was in my life.