A farewell coffee date. Take some time to breath, sip a warm drink, and share with your new blogging buddies. 

We did it! The Blogtember Challenge is coming to a close today and though I am sad to see it go, I’m also so proud of us and in awe of all the challenge has done!

A month ago, I was a baby blogger. I didn’t totally know what I was doing. I remember thinking, “If I get through September, maybe this has a chance of becoming a permanent fixture in my life.” I jumped into Bailey Jean’s challenge, writing my Day 1 post and having no idea if I’d make it to the end. And here we are!

I completed nearly every single challenge. I believe I only missed five. For a month that included a full-time job, two vacations and a jam-packed calendar, I’m calling it a success! I’ve learned a lot about myself and about my writing process, and I’ve “met” so many wonderful bloggers. I can’t wait to keep up with what all of you are doing as time goes on!

As for me and A Genuine Delight, it will likely be quiet around here for the next week as I jump into a new church community group (we’re going to be reading Let’s All Be Brave, and I am SO excited) and spend some time with my mom. After that, I hope to start sharing all of these adventures with you! It doesn’t look like I’ll be leaving NYC at all in October, instead using the month to relax, explore the city in my very first grown-up fall, and settle into some new responsibilities at church.

Thanks for a wonderful month, fellow Blogtember-ers, and I’ll see you soon! We’re only just beginning.

How have you changed in the past year?

Here I was reading this prompt and thinking that I’ve changed in almost every way possible. Almost nothing about my life is the same as it was 365 days ago, and I mean that in the best way. But according to my Timehop app, one year ago today I was between back-to-back vacations to Los Angeles and Dallas. I was rooting for my favorite baseball teams to make the playoffs. I was giggling over newly-released promos for the new season of Saturday Night Live.

Pacific Palisades, September 2013

So maybe things haven’t changed as much as I might like to think. I’m in the middle of a whirlwind couple of months including hosting a friend here in NYC, taking trips to Toronto and Dallas, hosting my mom and her friend. My baseball teams have all been eliminated from playoff contention, just as they eventually were in 2013. The first promos for SNL’s 40th season were released yesterday and I laughed hysterically.

My interests haven’t changed. But I have. The way I approach these things has. Last fall, when I was on those trips, I didn’t want to go home to Phoenix. I wanted to lay on the beach forever, to be “home” every weekend to root for my high-school football team, to be anywhere but where I lived. I loved Arizona but I knew a chapter was coming to a close, and I was anxious to turn the page. This year, I had a blast on my vacations. I laughed with friends and family, saw the sights, said some tearful goodbyes when they were over. But I was thrilled to return to NYC.

A year ago today I wrote down this Bible verse: After your season of suffering, God in all His grace will restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you (1 Peter 5: 10). Wow. I have 100 percent found that to be true. I certainly don’t consider myself to have been “suffering” at this time last year – by all accounts, my life was fantastic. But today, in this season, I feel so much stronger and more established.

At the beginning of 2014, I made my word of the year happiness. I wanted to continue to work toward my future, but also to find joy and delight in every day. It took effort for a while. Some days all I did was run errands and write cover letters, but I tried to appreciate the sunshine, friendships – whatever I could. Nine months later, finding that joy comes so much more naturally.

I’ve accomplished some really big dreams in the past year, and set my sights even higher – because for the first time, I truly feel like anything is possible.

Dallas, Texas, September 2014

Those baseball games and YouTube videos are no longer the high points in my day – they simply enhance my already fantastic life.