Dabbl

              Ahhh winter break. For the college kids it means leaving school for a few weeks after another vigorous finals season. For young adults, it usually means only a week or two off from the grind if you’re lucky. Fortunate for me, I was one of the lucky ones. Like many people this year, I was not able to take the vacation days that I’d normally take throughout the year. Thanks to a little thing called Covid, I had been saving up my vacation days all year. So, I figured I was due for a nice two week break to close out the year.

              This break was a little different for whatever reason. Not the actual break itself, but my mindset during the break. Most breaks I take, I dread coming back to work. This almost ruins the feeling of having a break because then I’m not able to fully enjoy myself while having work looming over me. But not this break. Work has been going very good for me so I never once had the thought of, “Oh no! Gotta get back to work.” It was more like, “Okay, let’s get back to work.” Whatever. I liked what I was doing. I was working full time from home. I had two side hustles that kept my creative mind occupied and fulfilled. I was working out 4 days a week. I was cooking practically every day, lunch and dinner. I had the opportunity to stop and meditate whenever I wanted to (which is better than you may think). I saw my girlfriend as much or as little as I wanted to. And I was staying healthy during a world-wide pandemic. So life was pretty good. And this made the break even sweeter to me. I had a good balance of working hard, rest, health, and fun.

              This all made my break delightful. Knowing that I had done well for myself that year and there is no reason why the path would change going into the New Year. Over break, I didn’t get to do all the activities I would have liked to do while I was home visiting my parents. I would have liked to do a small amount of traveling, like day trips to close spots around my parents’ house. But unfortunately a lot of the options were shut down. No worries though. I was home with one of my brothers who I rarely get to see and my parents who I don’t get to see often. And we had plenty of games to keep us busy. Our favorites are Scrabble, Jenga, and Scategories. It didn’t hurt that I did pretty well for myself with the games, especially since knowing how competitive it can get with my family.

              I also read a decent amount. I got a new book I’m excited to read which is refreshing. There’s nothing more boring than reading a book I’m not interested in. It could be the best book of all time, but if I’m not interested in it, then my eyes will glaze through it and I won’t remember a damn thing. But this one is easy to stay interested in.

              My family celebrates Christmas which was fabulous as always. The past five years, we’ve normally traveled over Christmas to visit my oldest brother and his family since he can’t get time off during that time of year. But with travel restrictions during 2020, we stayed home. My parents still outdid themselves with the gifts. I felt slightly bad I didn’t do as much with my gifts this year. I definitely could’ve done more this year. Especially with my girlfriend. Although she was super happy with what I got her, I could’ve been a little more personal and creative with my gift. Valentines is a month and half away, so I’ll make up for it then.

              At the end of each year, I do a mental check in as do most people wrapping up the year. Where am I today? Where was I this time last year? Where will I be next year? Well I can say for sure I am happy with my progress as a person and professional this year. I started a new side hustle and amped up an existing side hustle. If you’re familiar with my blogs then you should know that is a big deal for me. I also invested and saved a bunch of money while working from home and not going out much. That was also a big plus. I love saving and investing so being lockdown came somewhat easy to me.

              Now when looking at where I’ll be next year, it gets a little more difficult. The easy answer is I don’t know, but I always have suspicions. Here’s what I do know though. My girlfriend got into the business school of her dreams in California which is on the other side of the country. And I couldn’t be more proud and happy for her. So she’ll move out in the late summer/late fall and head west. She’s worked so hard for this and has been preparing for grad school entry tests and applications before we even met. And we’ve been together for almost two years now. So she’s chasing her dream. It’s a two year program with a summer apprenticeship so she’ll definitely have her hands full. There’s no beating around the bush here. I will be sad to see her go. But this is her dream so I’m caught in the middle between the con and the pro. However, I can honestly say my joy for her is overshadowing my selfishness. And we are in the healthiest position we’ve ever been in. And that’s saying a lot. We’ve never really had ups and downs, it’s mostly just been up for almost two years. She’s one of the best girls I’ve ever met. So I don’t see us doing anything rash when it’s time for her to head west. It’ll just be a new challenge. I’ve been in long distance relationships twice before and can honestly say I wasn’t ready for them then. My partners at the time and I were not ready. But this feels different. There’s an end goal. Once she graduates, and if we’re still together, that’ll be practically four years of dating. And if we make it to then, then we will get married and move in together. I don’t know where or what I’d be doing for work, but that just seems right. She doesn’t know any of this though. This is all in my mind.

              I’m happy for the progress I’ve made over the last year and I’m excited to see what 2021 has in store for me. Obviously there’s the one challenge I already touched on, but perhaps the worst thing is something I can’t foresee. But I can tell you that my company values my work and is most likely going to keep me around. I can tell you I’m only going to work on my side hustles more and more, until I get out of the rat race. But perhaps the best thing of 2021 is something I can’t foresee. All I can really do is take 2021 one day at a time. Focus on being the best that day. And worry about the next day tomorrow when it comes.

              Cheers to 2020. And bring on 2021.