2017: The Love Monday Movement in Review

It truly has been a year like no other.

Usually I would write my year-end posts by recounting my travels from the last twelve months, some work milestones and a few personal anecdotes. But I will remember 2017 as a year of personal pursuits.

This time last year, Love Monday Café was just an idea I had scribbled on a notebook, written in emails to myself and put together on a few Pinterest boards. It’s been a great journey, bringing it to life, and throughout the process my emotions have ranged from truly inspired and encouraged to downtrodden and defeated to grateful and fulfilled. Somewhat surprisingly, a value I learned from my corporate life was what kept me going throughout the year: resilience.   

Another motivating factor were my friends and family, who continue to support my crazy self and my crazy ideas. I can only imagine how frustrating and worrying it can be sometimes to be friends with an ENFP, and I’ve never been so much of an ENFP in my life as I was in 2017. So a lot of love and a thousand thanks are in order to all of you who have been with me all these years!

There’s a lot to look forward to in the new year when you’re coming from a year of first steps and new beginnings. I’m excited. There’s still so much I want to do. Bringing ideas to life and – excuse the cliché – turning dreams into reality can be quite addicting. It’s not always easy, it’s not always going to work, but doing it is always worth it, no matter what happens.

I also feel a new perspective coming to life throughout all my experiences in 2017: a preference for simpler things, a penchant for minimalism, a different set of priorities. I’ll write more about it once I’ve put them all together in a more coherent way in my head.

If I’m being honest, I struggled writing this year-end post. Not because I had nothing to write about - there were plenty. But everything I wrote would sound like some sort of cliché, the kind of repetitive, formulaic story written about in a Thought Catalog article or on some motivational or inspirational blog with questionable credibility: I was a girl who quit her job and gave up her career to pursue a far-fetched dream.

Except it isn’t a cliché. Because it’s been a deeply personal and one-of-a-kind journey, and I lived it, and I have the entire 2017 to look back on to remind me of it, and I will continue to live it in 2018.

I guess it’s still a little hard to believe sometimes. I really did it! I really took the plunge and did it, and it’s been a whole year since of taking plunges, breaking through obstacles, and moving onward to pursue my purpose and my passions, with supportive and loving friends and family around me.

So what more could I ask for in the new year? Not much else, really. Perhaps health, a level head, and a lot of heart so I can make the most of the good graces that have been given to me. Excuse the cliché, but there’s no other way to put it: hashtag-blessed. Happy new year!