What a difference a year makes...

It's my birthday. As I think back to my birthday last year, I can't help but realize that 26 was a wild year. A lot has changed.

-A year ago today if you asked me to move back up to Northern CA, I would have laughed at you. I LOVE Southern CA and wouldn't give it up. Today, we're packing our things up in boxes and just got word that the Northern CA condo that we applied for is ours if we want it. We move in 2 weeks and while it's a scary transition, I couldn't be more excited!

-A year ago today I may have wanted to quit my Admin job, but I had no idea when I'd actually be able to do it. While I got my degree and got another job, this one was just too good to let go, even if it made me miserable sometimes. Today I trained my replacement. My last day is in 2 weeks.

-A year ago today I had no idea if/how I'd be able to get a job in my field. Today, I've been working with clients for about 4 months and I enjoy it. I'll be transferring up North and continuing my work with children with Autism. While it's not the road I want to be on forever, it's been GREAT experience for me and will help me so much when I transition to the speech side of therapy because I will already understand what it's like to work with young clients.

-A year ago today I couldn't see how I would get into my SLPA program because the wait list was so long. Today, I'm enrolled at a Northern CA school and plan to start my online class and internship in August. I talked with my friend Katie (who just completed the program) and got some great tips and TONS of notes that will help me in the process and I'm SUPER excited to get started and finally complete this goal of working as a Speech/Language Pathology Assistant.

-A year ago today my friendships were different. After living in the same area for a while, you might not think friendships would change much, but I've lost some friends this year and I've gained and strengthened some friendships. I'm so GRATEFUL for the friends that I have in my life. For those who are there for me through it all...whether local or long distance...for those I can talk to when I'm frustrated, go walking with, do yoga with, go to Disneyland with, get ice cream or hot chocolate with, go shopping with, etc...It's so good to have good friends in your life. Now with our move I can see that my friendships will change even more in this next year. I hope we meet wonderful people up North and can make some forever friends. And I hope our friends from here will come up to visit us often (we'll have an extra room ;)

-A year ago today I was waiting for my niece, Alice to be born and while I was excited, I was a little sad at the thought that we live so far and it would take years for her to ever know me/remember me. Today, I'm ELATED to know that we'll only be about an hour away and I can see her and Sierra any time I want!

I hope this move is a wonderful adventure for us, I hope it brings us closer together and helps us to both get  ahead in our careers. I hope we can always look back on our lives as young adults and think "Moving to Northern CA was one of the best things we could have done". If not...we'll be back next year ;)