It’s about due time for a new “Life Lately” blog post, and since I’m squeezing this one into literally the last day of 2019, it’s only right that I make it a look back on this past year. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever felt the same way, but sometimes I feel like yearly recap posts really give me a pit. 😊It’s such a convenient excuse to look back on and round up the best moments of your year prior and only highlight the highlights, you know? This post could easily become a positive, glossy version of all of my happiest, proudest moments of last year. But then again, that wouldn’t be the most accurate look back on the year. 

One of my major goals for 2020 is to have this blog serve as an open and real reflection of my life (in even more ways than I ever have before) and I think that this post is an attempt at a starting point for that. 😊

My word, or phrase, for 2019 was “positive growth” and growth did end up being at the forefront of my year in a big way.

I simultaneously went headstrong into 2019 with the intention of growing in my corporate job and my blogging job… I blame the type 3 enneagram in me, but when I really want something, I don’t stop working until I achieve it. It’s a blessing and a curse, and therefore leads to both “peaks” and “pits,” which you’ll see is how I formatted this post. 

I guess you can say this about most years of your life, but I felt that my peaks this year were really high and that the pits were really low.

For instance, my 25th birthday dinner with my girlfriends was one of my favorite nights of my whole life, and literally a week before that there was a day when I could not stop crying from being exhausted and overwhelmed by a multitude of things.

It’s obviously not preferable to be so up and down, and I’m working to find some steadiness now, but this past year I had to realize that it was OKAY to feel all-the-things while trying to balance and figure out the growing pains I was going through. 

Sometimes you’re in your mid-20s and you’re trying to get enough sleep and be a good daughter/friend/roommate/co-worker, and drink a healthy ratio of coffee to green juice but also still go out and keep in touch with everyone and get to work on time and balance multiple bank accounts (omg this year I conquered a business account you guys, and if you’d seen my college accounting grade you would know how HUGE of a miracle this is), and give back to your community and go on dates with a guy you love and travel to new places but not take off too much time from work, and get a promotion, and call your parents, but also nail down a fitness regime… oh! And self tan but keep it off your white sheets. 

You guys. How can you not have sweeping ups and downs when you’re trying to do it ALL?

So. In an effort for this to not be one of those glossy 2019 recaps that gives you a major pit about your own life (because we ALL face up and downs), here’s my messy attempt at trying to capture my past year. Just by reading this little blog, you support me and are a part of my life in a major way, and therefore deserve all the pits and peaks😊. 

Luckily for us 😊, I tend to capture almost everything on my iPhone (I’ve been blogging for 6 years, I just can’t help it anymore). Even crying-in-my-car selfies. Enjoy my pits & peaks, and these pics that capture them all. 😊

The Pits

Lol let’s just start by listing out some really stellar moments of mine from the below images– eating pizza rolls alone in my bedroom while trying to figure out how to connect my business debit card to my business credit card to my LLC to my personal debit card (also, like points?!!). Putting on skin tight leggings for a photoshoot on a 90 degree day behind a bush but really in plain sight. Sitting on the floor with my laptop of whichever hotel bathroom we were in during my family trip to visit my sister in Europe in the spring. 

Crying alone in my car for one reason or another (or crying to Johnny or to my mom). Drinking coffee at all hours and changing into sneakers or slippers whenever I could. Extremely bloodshot eyes as I tried to meet blog deadlines but still get enough hours of sleep so that I would be able to safely drive to work the next morning. 

Of course, I’m only sharing the moments that directly relate to me (there were others that aren’t my story to tell) and I know that so many of my pits stemmed from blessings, and that I was fortunate to have a very healthy and happy year. I really try not to lose my perspective on that. I did, however, learn that my lifestyle this past year (of juggling both my full-time job and blogging job) was not sustainable, and I’m really looking forward to still doing both, but devoting a lot more time to the blog (and to myself/rest!) in 2020.  

The Peaks

We kicked off 2019 in my favorite sunny place, Vero Beach, Florida. I redecorated my apartment bedroom in Philadelphia a few times (decorating and organizing are some of the things that make me happiest!), planned the Lilly Pulitzer x Lonestar Southern Bachelorette Party (my first ever, ha!), flew with Johnny for the first time and stayed in Aruba, visited Amsterdam, Copenhagen, + a few places in Norway with my fam, GOT NEW EYEBROWS, celebrated my 25th birthday with a literal beach picnic dinner on my favorite beach in the world on Long Beach Island, had one too many cocktails on the dock of the bay over the summer, watched all of the hydrangeas bloom in my mom’s garden, started consistently working with a Christian life coach (more on that in 2020).

Visited Johnny’s favorite place on earth in upstate Wisconsin (and got some water-skiing in!), toured Peru with my five best friends from college, took a few fall road trips, explored the Christmas capital of the world (FINLAND) and dog sled, spent Thanksgiving with my mom’s side of the family in PA, took the most amazing group of influencers to Palm Beach for a Lilly trip, went on a Christmas lights tour in Philly with my besties from work, spent a weekend in Lancaster (where my parents now live in PA) with Johnny, rang in Christmas in Vero Beach and enjoyed a painkiller in the sunshine on Christmas Day.

Whew! It was also the year that Amy Believes in Pink became its own company and I rebranded and relaunched a new website. Needless to say it was my favorite year of running this blog by FAR. Now onto lucky year number 7…. 😊

Grateful and Excited

Thank you for reading this whole post if you got this far (and past all of my “peak” pictures– you know I couldn’t cut those down 😊). I am so thankful to be surrounded by you and a group of people who stick with me through the peaks and the pits…I’m so grateful for the growth of this past year and even more excited about what’s next. 😊