Rather than dissect the devastating losses of 2020, I want to celebrate some of my small wins.

The little things, some not-so-little, that made me smile, made me strong, made me happy to be alive. The good memories with good people. The goals achieved, even if they weren’t my biggest ones.

As Vonnegut said, “Enjoy the little things in life, because one day you’ll realize they were the big things.”

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The days before March 15 were full of magic, though I didn’t fully appreciate them at the time.

1. I snowshoed to an idyllic snowglobe cabin near Breckenridge with my friend Melanie, where we shared a bowl of boozy snow with six or seven strangers while swapping stories around the wood stove (oh, the germs!! but oh, the joy.)
   
   
2. I saw my favorite band, Mandolin Orange, perform with the Denver Symphony in a night that moved me to tears.
   
   
3. I went on a few cute dates at hip breweries and restaurants around Boulder, memorable not for the men but for the fresh feeling of ~possibility~ after my late 2019 breakup.
   
   
   I felt flirty, fun, and beautiful for the first time in awhile. I look forward to feeling that way again in 2021.
   
   
4. In January I attended my second Outdoor Retailer. The crowds!! the parties!! Free food and drink!! People who flew in from all over the country and even other countries, all in one place!! Networking!! Meeting strangers who became friends!!
   
   
   I spent time with my friend Jess while helping with the Oru Kayak booth, networked with some industry baddies I might work with someday, and got to meet several outdoorsy internet friends, like my friend Lexie, in person for the first time.
   
   
5. In early March, with COVID still just a whisper, I drove out to California for a business trip-turned-last-time-I-saw-most-of-my-friends-before-the-apocalypse. (The day I got there the client sales summit that was my original reason for going —a chance to meet the company’s far-flung sales team as they converged on San Francisco— was canceled along with all their flights. By the end of the month, 10 members of their 20-person marketing team would be laid off with two weeks’ severance, plus me the freelancer with no severance at all.)
   
   
   With my other clients’ offices suddenly closing, too, I spent more time with my friends — which was appreciated then, but even more precious now. Hiking in the Oakland hills with Nick, eating at our beloved Becky’s Chinese with Alizé, sharing Ethiopian in Berkeley with Lila, cuddling and Simba-lifting Casey and Dawn’s darling new baby girl, Louisa, and enjoying one last sunny laptop session with Sarah as COVID turned from whisper to shout and I realized I needed to drive home NOW.
   
   
   Right as San Francisco shut down, I met one of my favorite clients, Liz at Humu, for a walk-and-talk in her neighborhood. (The Humu office was still open-but-optional then and would close indefinitely the next day.) A tire rim rolled down the eerily-empty city street before us like a perfect 21st century tumbleweed, prompting nervous laughter. That’s my enduring image of the before-times-on-the-cusp-of-covid times: still laughing, but under a deepening cloud of fear for what was to come.
   
   
6. By complete dumb luck, I spent two weekends in a row camping in Death Valley with friends, both on my way to AND on my way from San Francisco.
   
   
   I saw sunrise over the sand dunes with Jen, Cathy, Erika, and Jaimie one weekend, then saw the famous sailing stones with Alizé, Kate, and Tyler the next.
   
   
   Juno fell in love with Tyler, whose lap became her headrest the entire 5-hour roundtrip tour of Death Valley. Another enduring memory of 2020: Alizé aka DJ Zé pumping tunes as wonderful, heroic nurse Kate steered us toward the Sailing Stones through some of the world’s prettiest landscapes. I’ve wanted to see the Sailing Stones on Racetrack Playa for years but was always too nervous to do the drive alone. They were totally worth the wait.
   
   
7. I turned 29 in lockdown in May, but it wasn’t as depressing as I feared.
   
   
   My parents bought me a chocolate buttercream cake, Melanie surprised me with a pallet of my favorite Lefthand beer, Dallin bought me a 3D-printed Minas Tirith book-end, and we enjoyed shrimp n’ grits and delightful cocktails from my favorite local spot Westside Tavern.
   
   
   I was overwhelmed with texts, DMs, calls, and emails from people who might not have reached out were it not for lockdown.
   
   
   I felt so very LOVED.
   
   
8. I started therapy again, for the second time in my life. It truly helped to have someone to vent to, without worrying about complaining to someone who had it worse in lockdown than I did or threatening a friend’s fragile mental state with my own. My therapist encouraged me to seek out the ADHD diagnosis that changed my life.
   
   
9. …I got diagnosed with Adult ADHD! I joined a coaching program that literally changed the way I think about myself.
   
   
10. I reconnected with college friends I probably wouldn’t have, if our lives were as busy as they’d been pre-lockdown. Ashley in Arizona, Maddie in Wisconsin, Ali and Kelsey in Texas — good friends I chatted with now and then (and in Ali’s case, visited several times) since graduation but never in a group. Kelsey’s baby shower on Zoom, that I wouldn’t have been able to attend if we hadn’t been in lockdown because it would have been in Texas.
    
    
11. I got to see my sweet friend Beth, who lives in Nepal, and my sweet friend Maddie, who lives in Wisconsin, on their quick stopovers through Colorado.
    
    
12. I climbed my first Colorado 14’ers: Handies Peak for an impossibly beautiful sunset and Uncompahgre for an impossibly beautiful sunrise. Uncompahgre was Melanie’s birthday, which meant party hats and cookies and the birthday girl shotgunning a beer at the summit.
    
    
13. The alpine wildflowers in summer! Carpets of little elephants’ heads, paintbrush, and Colorado columbines are far as the eye could see.
    
    
14. I backpacked The Enchantments in Washington with Melanie and a gorgeous mountain goat we named Gandalf. It was one of the prettiest hikes of my life — and just the beginning of more adventures in Washington!
    
    
15. I backpacked in The Wind River Range in Wyoming, another one of the prettiest hikes of my life — and just the beginning of more adventures in Wyoming!
    
    
16. Women on the Road accountability group, met Lexie and Margot in person!
    
    
17. I did a bunch of jaw-dropping hikes on my Colorado bucket list, including Sky Pond, Mayflower Gulch, Chasm Lake, and part of the Four Pass Loop, plus repeats of favorites like Lake Isabelle, Blue Lake, and Walker Ranch!
    
    
18. I hiked my local favorites, Rabbit Mountain and Lake McIntosh (okay, the latter is really just a walk,) in every single month and every single possible mood. I circled Lake McIntosh at least 40 times.
    
    
19. Dallin, Juno and I did 9 separate sunset hikes in Boulder.
    
    
20. I cooked a LOT.
    
    
21. I baked A LOT.
    
    
22. I made a LOT of cocktails.
    
    
23. I watched a LOT of television. (Incomplete list, including some rewatches: all of Schitt’s Creek, Tiger King, Love is Blind, Dark, new season of The Crown, 3 seasons of Brooklyn 99, all of Broadchurch, all of The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, Home for Christmas season 2, The West Wing seasons 1-5…)
    
    
24. I partnered with some amazing dream brands, like Clif Bar, Luna Bar, Brooklinen, Beyond Meat, Kodiak Cakes, GoDaddy, Firefox, and PrAna.
    
    
25. I read 103 books. (Haven’t kept up with my Goodreads this year but am hoping to make a list soon!)
    
    
26. I worked for 7 new freelance writing clients and retained 2 amazing “regulars” from 2019, writing everything from e-books to billboards. Humu, Lyra, Solv, Comfy, and the rest…THANK YOU for making my dreams come true.
    
    
27. I drove the Alpine Loop from Lake City to Silverton with my new friend Michael, seeing some of the prettiest alpine scenery in the world.
    
    
28. I bought a foldable Oru Kayak Inlet and kayaked all over Colorado this summer.
    
    
29. Two of my best friends —”‘best friend’ isn’t a person, it’s a tier”—moved from California to my corner of Colorado! Who needs new friends in Colorado when I can just import mine from California?! 😉
    
    
30. I road tripped to Utah twice, once in March and once in October, revisiting some of my favorite places on the planet like Zion and Bryce.
    
    
31. I spent my favorite season of the year, aspen season, crisscrossing Colorado with Melanie, Michael, and Alizé in search of GOLD. 😀
    
    
32. I turned my two biggest Tinder flames of the year, both men I met before March 15, into lifelong friends, confidants, and adventure partners.
    
    
33. After a FULL YEAR of not hugging or seeing my beloved Grandma —even though part of the reason I moved to Colorado was to be closer to her— I finally got to spend a full week with her in Kansas at Christmas. (After 2 weeks of serious isolation and a just-in-case COVID test.)
    
    
    We played Bananagrams and did the daily puzzles in the paper, took nighttime drives to see the Christmas lights, looked at old photos, watched The Sound of Music and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and The Greatest Showman and Call the Midwife, opened presents, ate elaborate meals, listened to Bert Kaempfert on vinyl, and walked Juno around the neighborhood. It felt delightfully normal in a year that was anything but. (Not-normal though: we felt SEVEN earthquakes!)
    
    
34. After a FULL year of not hugging or seeing my mom and brother —even though part of the reason I moved to Colorado was to be closer to them— I finally got to spend a full week in Albuquerque between Christmas and New Year’s.
    
    
    I hiked with my Dad in the sunny-snowy Sandias, had heart-to-hearts with Mom in our pajamas over coffee, watched Jeopardy! every night like we did growing up, and enjoyed our famous Wood family New Year’s Eve seafood feast of crab legs, fried oysters, and smoked salmon followed by a “New York New Year,” aka going to bed at 10pm Mountain Time right after the ball dropped in Times Square. Again, it felt delightfully normal.
    
    
35. I didn’t take a full-time job and kept myself afloat with freelancing all damn year. Even though I made a lot less money this year than last, and much-much less than in my last full-time job, I know I’m happier, free-er, and more proud of myself than I would be with another 9-5.
    
    
36. I always paid my rent, even with tens of thousands of dollars in lost income, an unemployment system that had no idea what to do with freelancers, subtenants who were consistently late on rent, and 2 months paying for an empty room in the house I rent because I couldn’t find anyone to fill it.
    
    
37. My first home living alone actually feels like a home now, with cute decorations, framed art that makes me happy, photos of loved ones on the walls, a well-stocked kitchen, and a gear garage (!!).
    
    
    I’d hoped to have a healthy down payment saved right now and be closer to not-renting next year, but considering 2020 I’m happy to be where I am. I keep reminding myself how very grateful I am to not have roommates!
    
    
38. I fully paid off my car. Ruby Sue the Subaru is now 100% mine!
    
    
39. I gained 35,000 followers on Tiktok, 1,000 on Instagram (after losing a different 1,000…), 500 subscribers to my not-even-active email newsletter, and grew my blog traffic by 1,300%!
    
    
    But it’s not about the followers. I’m proud of myself for continuing to create this year, even inconsistently.
    
    
40. I paid my rent with this blog for the very first time: $1,200/month!! I don’t consistently make that much yet, but being able to do it even once shows me what’s possible for the future.
    
    
41. I canceled my Amazon Prime and supported local businesses instead, successfully sourcing all my Christmas presents from Etsy and independent bookstores.
    
    
42. Instead of expecting every day to be epic, I learned to find the epic in the everyday.
    
    
    I won’t say that being forced to travel less cured my destination addiction completely, but it certainly helped me find the beauty in standing still.
    
    
43. I finally started to understand my unique brain and body —my ADHD, my PCOS— which helped me love myself better than ever before.
    
    
44. I made it. 🙂