2025 Recap!!!

I love recapping my years on here. I write so few blog posts now in comparison to high school and college, but there are a few things that are still sacred to me: annual recaps, travel recaps, the moodboard... things like that. Sometimes I wonder if I should be writing more blog posts, not so much for other people anymore, but just for myself. The last few years have truly been some of the most wonderful years, and one day I might want to look back on these posts and reminisce about how fun, how fabulous, how lucky I was to spend my 20s in New York. 

Anyway, at the very least, I want to recap my 2025 now at a high-level. I love to look back on the highlights, the travels, and the key milestones of the year. 

2024 Recap & Highlights

Every year, I recap my year in a blog post here. It's one of my favorite ways to reflect on my life annually and acknowledge how fortunate I am to have so much fun, health, love, and happiness in my life. Especially as I've (sadly) been writing fewer and fewer actual blog posts in recent years, it's nice to really sit down and think for a bit and write out a proper recap of my year.

2024 was a great year; the crux definitely being moving in with Joe after 3 years of long distance, and moving out of my first apartment in NYC (which one was the bigger deal?! lol ;). I traveled a bit less than I did in 2023, but still had my fair share of trips with friends, fun in the city, and lots of lake weekends this summer which was SO fun! I also feel like 2024 was a great year of strength for me in a physical sense; I got back into running, and started going to Solidcore regularly. From a work perspective, I was challenged this year on three different client projects, which was an interesting and exciting shift from previous years at work where I was primarily on long-term projects. I work in consulting, so getting to experience a few different clients, challenges, and ways of working this year was a great learning experience and growth opportunity for me. I am so proud to share that I was promoted again at work and I am loving my job more than ever! I am incredibly grateful for my job and I continue to feel so lucky regarding my work situation.

With those major themes covered, let's dive into the highlights of my year!

January 2025 Moodboard (Desktop & iPhone Wallpapers!)

Happy New Year!!!!!!! I hope you all had a lovely holiday season celebrating with family and friends. I went down to Florida to spend Christmas with my dad's side of the family, and then came back to NYC for a fun New Year's Eve with friends. I'll be sharing my 2024 recap later this week, but for now, we can't officially start a new month and a new year without a new moodboard!

I've been making these mood boards since 2020 and they never get old (to me) - I hope you continue to love them as well! Please tag me on Instagram if you download this month's moodboard -- I absolutely love to see it on your screens and appreciate your support, shares, and reactions so much. The moodboard love really does make this so much more fun!

2023 Recap & Highlights

Happy New Year! I wanted to do a proper recap of my 2023 - I do this post every single year and love the tradition. This past year was really one of my best yet... if not the best year of my life so far, and I want to recap it properly!

January 2024 Moodboard (Desktop & iPhone Wallpapers!)

Hello 2024 and Happy New Year!!! Hope you all had a safe and fun NYE last night! I got back from Christmas travel on Friday evening, and spent New Year's Eve with friends at a little apartment party last night! It was the perfect way to ring in the New Year and I am feeling so grateful kicking off 2024!

2023 was an amazing year - I still need to do the proper recaps that I do every year, but until then, I hope you enjoy the first mood board of 2024! I tried to do a fresh start / clean slate / light winter vibe; I hope you love this month's mood board as much as I do!

Please tag me on Instagram if you download it- I absolutely love to see the mood board on your screens!

February Moodboard (Desktop & iPhone Wallpaper Downloads)

Hellooo February! I feel like 2023 is off to a great start. January was full of fun little adventures in NYC with friends, and getting settled into the year. I feel like I was relatively good about setting new routines and setting myself up for success this year. Now that it's February first, I really feel like the year is kicking off for me. I'm spending a week in Dallas and a week in Telluride, CO (my first time there!) this month, and I'm so looking forward to both.

Of course this month we have Valentine's Day, so the Feb mood board is very pink! I tried to make it a bit more vintage-feeling and I love how it turned out.

I hope you love this month's mood board as much as I do. Please tag me on IG if you download the new mood board- I absolutely love to see the board on your screens!! 

2022 Recap & Highlights

I'm looking forward to recapping my highlights from 2022 and some thoughts on the year! I do a post like this every single year, and I feel like it's a really great exercise for me mentally. It always reminds me how much I have to be grateful for, and where I want to make changes in my life going forward!

Overall, 2022 was a really, really great year. From a handful of big moments (like four weddings and a couple international trips) to the everyday moments (like making new friends, reading great books, and feeling more settled in NYC), there was so much throughout the year to be grateful for. I feel like it was one of the first years of my life that I really felt like my life was completely up to me; I moved to NYC in 2021, and it was just a big adjustment time. I also was still getting used to working and post-grad life. This past year, however, was much more settling. I made handfuls of friends, strengthened new & old friendships, said no to things I didn't feel like doing anymore (basically, I went out less and stayed in more which turns out is way more my speed), and felt just really happy and content with where I'm at in my life. I read a lot of great books, traveled out of the country to places I'd never been before, and felt very secure and happy in my relationship... just a lot of positive things! As much as 2022 was a great year, of course, there were also challenges, But for the most part, I'll remember it very fondly.

I'm looking forward to even more fun in 2023. So far I have a couple of trips lined up and milestones to look forward to, like my 25th birthday, my 2-year anniversary of living in NYC, my 3-year anniversary with Joe, and more. Before I get ahead of myself, though, let's recap 2022! 

January Moodboard (Desktop & iPhone Wallpaper Downloads)

 Happy, happy New Year!!! I hope you all had a lovely New Year's Eve celebration last night! I am in Dallas visiting Joe and we had a really relaxing night just enjoying a couple of cocktails, making a board, and playing Rummikub!

I am so excited for another year of mood-boarding for you all. I feel like the mood boards really grew traction last year, and I'm looking forward to continuing to create them every month in 2023 for you! As always, there are both desktop and iPhone-sized wallpapers below.

I hope you love this month's mood board as much as I do. Please tag me on IG if you download the new mood board- I absolutely love to see the board on your screens!! 

In the coming days, I also plan to share a 2022 recap and some 2023 goals on the blog as well.

This Week's Top 10

1. We've made it through the first week of the New Year! This week I've been in Madison at Joe's, and I head back to NYC on Sunday night. It's *so* cold here in Wisconsin (it's -6° today!!!) that the 30-degree temps in NYC sound like heaven. I miss my daily walks!

2. In two weeks I'm heading to St. Barths for my aunt's wedding and couldn't be more excited. When I get back to the city I plan to pretty much quarantine up until I leave just so I don't risk anything; in order to get onto the island you have to present a negative covid test, and it's really just not something I want to take any chances with. 

3. Speaking of- I did get my booster shot on Wednesday and I have to admit that yesterday was pretty rough. I went to a hard workout class on Wednesday night about an hour after my shot, which is supposed to help, but all day yesterday I had major body aches, a headache, and on-and-off chills. Fortunately, I was able to work from bed, and this morning I woke up totally fine again, so it's all good! If you haven't received your booster shot yet, I made my appointment through Walgreens.

Highlights of 2021

Every year around the New Year, I share my annual recap of moments throughout the past year that made it what it was. While this year I’m a little late to posting this, it’s my 6th year in a row sharing a recap of the past year and I just couldn’t skip it! This past year was honestly quite challenging, but also really great.

In 2021, my family officially said goodbye to Wisconsin and moved out of our house when I moved to New York City in April. My dad hasn’t lived in Wisconsin for years, my brother has lived in Chicago since college, and my mom moved to Charleston in October of 2020. So, when I made my move to NYC this March, it was far more difficult than the move itself; I was also saying goodbye to my home city of the past 16 years!

This is where I want to write “moving to NYC has been worth it!” because most days, it has been. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit there are days where I have no idea what I’m doing or what I want to do, and that feeling leaves me stressed out and confused. I don’t regret moving to New York *at all,* but if 2021 taught me anything, it’s that if I want something, I have to work for it myself, and I’m the only one standing in my way. And that is especially applicable for figuring out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. (Suffice it to say a blog post about 2022 goals will be coming soon!!)

So without further adieu, here are some standout moments from 2021...

January Moodboard (Desktop & iPhone Wallpaper)

Happy New Year!!! I hope you all had a fun and safe New Year's this weekend ringing in 2022 with people you love. I had a lovely weekend in Chicago with friends and I am feeling good about 2022 so far! 

I am spending this week in Madison, WI at Joe's apartment before heading to St.Barths toward the end of the month for my aunt's wedding!!! I am *so* excited for the wedding and also beyond excited to visit St. Barths for the first time. 

I plan to share my 2021 recap and 2022 goals in the coming days, but in the meantime, please enjoy the first mood board of 2022! Please tag me if you make this your desktop or phone wallpaper, it brightens my day more than you know!

2020 Reflection + Goals for 2021

I was reading over my goals for 2020, and although they were written pre-pandemic, they still were really applicable to the year overall... not going to lie, I typically forget about my New Year's goals after a few months each year. However, despite not intentionally focusing on my goals, they really did shape my year. Today I am going to unpack my 2020 goals and share what my goals are for this year!

Moments from 2020

For the past 5-ish years, I have been recapping my year by sharing the highlights from each month. However, this year it feels inappropriate to talk about all of the highlights in my personal life when so many people had a year of loneliness, loss, financial struggles... the list could go on. For many, this year didn't have many highlights. This was a year flooded with struggles, sadness, and uncertainty. But, this year also brought hope, love, compassion, togetherness, and taught us what is truly important as human beings. So, here are my highlights, lowlights, and mostly just moments from 2020 that stuck out from all of the rest (because let's be honest, a lot of the days looked the same...)

Disclaimer: I have never had Covid, for which I am incredibly grateful. I have been taking the virus seriously from the moment I got home from spring break. I am incredibly grateful for my health and have always tried to make the right decisions for myself and for the greater community to not spread the virus... which you don't always see online. Of course, I have made mistakes along the way, but I promise I have been trying my best and will continue to do so.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me this year and followed along. I love this community and those of you who have been nothing but kind to me are truly the reason I continue to blog and share my life online. So, thank you, you know who you are. I appreciate you. Happy New Year!

Without further adieu: here are some of my memorable 2020 moments:

More Goals for 2020....

Now that a new semester is officially here and I'm getting back into a routine, I want to share a few more "concrete" goals that I have in mind for 2020. I shared my overall goal for the year at the beginning of the month, but there are a lot more things I've added to my list in the last couple of weeks that I want to share to hold myself accountable for!

At the beginning of 2019, I looked back on the goals I had set and analyzed how well I met them! I forgot about that post but rediscovered it the other day and want to do the same thing to kick off this new year!

From 2019:

1. Stop overthinking every little thing -- I did not do this... at all. Maybe it's just a personality trait ingrained in me that I can't change? I am the biggest overthinker. If I text someone without using like five exclamation points, I will think about it for hours if I sounded mean (or something ridiculous like that). Maybe I just have too much time on my hands?!

2. Blog at least twice a week -- I didn't do this at all. More details in the 2019 recap I wrote the other week, which you can find here.

3. Be kinder. -- I think I did a good job of this! I am so lucky to have so many amazing, fabulous friends, and my precious little family, and I'd like to think I did a good job of just being nicer to all of them in 2019. 

4. Be okay on my own -- I did this! In 2018 I was really dependent on other people to make me happy. In 2019 I definitely think I had a good grasp on myself and tried harder to be my own person. Going to get into this a little more below!

and I know no one cares, but I can do my laundry now... kind of :)

For 2020:

The first couple of weeks this year have given me a good feeling for what's to come... I'm feeling inspired, refreshed, and motivated! Here are a few things I'm hoping to work on throughout the year... I've split it up into general goals, and then a few specific ones at the end! I think having specific, more measurable goals for myself will be interesting.

General Goals:

Eat more vegetables // This sounds so dumb, but I actually love eating vegetables and I just don't prioritize it! I want to eat a vegetable at least once a day, lol. 2019 was a year of lots of exercise, so 2020 can be the year of lots of vegetables!!

Read more books // I read a lot over winter break, so expect a blog post on that coming soon! In doing that though, it made me realize that I want to try to read more consistently throughout the year... not just on vacations or over breaks. I'm going to try to at least keep a book in my possession at all times so I won't have an excuse not to read. 

Do + Post what I want // I put a lot of pressure on myself to post certain things that I think will be well-liked by whoever sees it, and this year I just want to give up on trying so hard and just post whatever I want. At the end of the day, no one cares what you post as much as you do, so you might as well just post things you like! For example, you may have noticed while I was on Long Island that I posted a lot of interior photos on my Instagram! I love interior design and I know those photos don't get as many likes, but I love them, so that's what matters!

Be Myself // Going off of that, I just want to be myself more this year and stop feeling like I have to do things for other people or be a certain way when people are around me or watching me. I mentioned above, I feel like a did a better job of being on my own in 2019, but I didn't necessarily do a good job of just being myself when I am with other people. I don't know if this will make any sense to anyone, but I'm kind of like a chameleon personality in the sense that wherever I am, I'll adapt to that situation. I am a very go with the flow person, and while I think that's a good thing, this year I want to make sure I am doing things because I want to and not because I feel like I have to for other people. I don't think I ever do this intentionally, and I wouldn't really consider it a people-pleasing thing (because I don't think I'm a people pleaser at all), but more just that I don't really make executive decisions for myself and I want to!

Specific Goals:

The Daily Stoic // This is a little connected to the previous goal! Basically, I want to hold myself accountable every day to be a better version of myself. I saw someone on Instagram post about this book, The Daily Stoic (can't remember who) so I bought it and I've been reading it every day! There is a passage every day that just inspires you and sets your mindset for the day and gives you something to think about. My goal for this year is to read it every day and stick with it! So far I am loving it. As someone with an overthinking issue, I find meditation really uncomfortable, so this is a great alternate form that feels much more guided and productive!

Investing // I started investing in 2019 and I am obsessed with my investment portfolio (I use Ellevest!). It's an amazing (and easy) way to get a head-start on your finances as a young adult. In fact, it's really one of the smartest things you can do for yourself and your future. I don't often talk about finances and real-life, important things on here, but wealth management and financial independence are two things I am strongly passionate about, and this year I am hoping to not only triple my current investments but share with you all in blog posts my tips and how I got started! Would you be interested in this?!

Listen to more podcasts! // I was better about listening to podcasts on my way to my internships the last few summers, but at school, I get so caught up in my music that I rarely switch over to podcasts. Podcasts are a great source of inspiration for me, so I want to try and listen to at least one episode a week... my favorite podcast is Gals on the Go! What's yours?

What are your goals for 2020?
xoxo

2019 Reflection + Goals For 2020

i used the exact same image when i wrote my goals for 2017!

On paper, 2019 was a really great year. I traveled, spent time with my family, saw some of my favorite bands in concert, and even had the biggest weight lifted off my shoulders when I received multiple job offers for after graduation! Yesterday I shared my highlights throughout the year, and it was nice to take a step back and realize how many great adventures I had throughout this past year. However, to me, 2019 was a bit of a disappointment, and it all had to do with my mindset.

Highlights of 2019

Happy second to last day of 2019! I wanted to share my annual post of curated highlights throughout the year. Tomorrow I plan to pop back in and share a more in-depth reflection of my year and some goals for 2020, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this little walk through my last twelve months! I would love for you to share your highlight(s) of the year down below, too!

If you're interested, you can find my highlights of 2018 here and 2017 here.

Goals For 2019

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!! I hope you all had a fun and exciting New Year's Eve! I wanted to kick off the year by sharing a few goals for 2019. I never really make formal new year's resolutions, but there are a few things I hope to do this year and I always love hearing about what you all are hoping to accomplish too!

Highlights of 2018

Happy New Year's Eve! Today I wanted to share a quick highlight reel of my year, month by month. This year was full of fun trips, spontaneous adventures, so many highs, and as always, a few lows. Overall it was a year full of the unexpected, with amazing memories along the way, and I can't wait to see what is in store for 2019. 

In January I visited my best friend in Chicago, attempted a pink theme on Instagram, got my hair highlighted for the first time, and kicked off my spring semester of my sophomore year of college. I shared my January favorites in this post.

2018 Reflection

Hi!! I hope you all had a lovely holiday and enjoyed this relaxing week between the craziness of Christmas and New Years. I unexpectedly took a few weeks off of blogging during finals and the holiday, but I’m excited to pop back on today and reflect on 2018. Tomorrow I’ll be back again with my highlights from the year!

5 Goals for this Year

I don't like to call my goals for the year "New Year's Resolutions" because that term makes me think of a list of things I'll probably fall behind on come February, and things that aren't really that well-thought out enough to last more than a few weeks. So, instead I am defining the list of things I want to work on this year as goals that I hope to develop into habits by the end of 2018! As I talked about in yesterday's post, my overall outlook on this year is to be more present in each moment and to take life day by day, as they come. Here are five things I hope to do along the way: