2018 was the best year of my life. 

I won the lottery! Not, like, the PowerBall, but the lottery for The Wave permits. 😉 In fact, I won the permit lotteries for Havasu Falls, Half Dome, Mount Whitney, and The Wave —4 of my all-time bucket-list adventures, with notoriously difficult-to-obtain permits— all in the same year.  All 4 adventures exceeded my wildest expectations. 

I quit my job! …then immediately got another one. That ended up even worse than the first, so I left that one, too. I spent the last 4 months of the year in blissful funemployment, dipping my toes into the wild, wonderful world of freelance.

I traveled the world! Well, not the WHOLE world, but 10 new countries in Europe/Asia as well as dozens of new parks, cities, mountains and monuments in the great U.S. of A. I traveled solo through Europe for more than a month. I roadtripped tens of thousands of miles through the American West. I spent more than 40 nights sleeping under the stars in some of the planet’s most beautiful places. 

2018 was also a difficult year. 

I found out my boyfriend of nearly a year had a secret second girlfriend/double life for 10 of the 11 months we were together. (He didn’t break my heart, but he did bruise my ego/waste my time/make me question my own judgment.) 

Two once-close friends died tragically just shy of their 30th birthdays, one in a violent act of terrorism and one by his own hand. I wish I’d been better at staying in touch. 

I hit a new low point of depression and self-doubt. Anxiety, people-pleasing disease, impostor syndrome, self-hatred…I felt it all, and it felt awful. I’m in a better place now, thanks to some therapy —the wilderness kind and the cognitive behavioral kind— and an excellent support system.

Overall, 2018 was a beautiful, transformative year.

I made some great new friends I hope to keep for life. I took risks. I tried new things. I bet on myself —and won. 

Bring it on, 2019! Here’s to another “best year yet.”