On a personal note

I'd like to take a few minutes to step away from review blogging and talk about something important to me on a personal level. A recent realization of an accomplished goal that I set my mind to years ago.

Tomorrow, it'll be back to the normal reviews. Promise.

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January 1, 2006 - the day I promised myself that I'd do whatever it takes to make myself happy. It was the ultimate New Year's resolution. I was graduating from college, knew I'd be moving far from home, and needed to make it a point to make myself happy.

So I started down the path I thought would bring me ultimate bliss - going balls to the wall in pursuing a successful career. Work became my life. At first, the accomplishments of this were enough to sustain a cheerful attitude, but within a year I wasn't seeing my life in quite that same light.

I was in a long-distance relationship that was barely hanging on, I'd fractured my feet on more than one occasion as I tried to keep up on my passion for competitive running (to which I've since given up to focus my attention on my health, and other sports), and my 12-15 hour-a -day career was sucking the life out of me, slowly.

Luckily, I moved across the country, again, found a great group of people to spend my time with, and rediscovered my passion for photography. Work had me traveling a lot, which kept my boredom at bay.

Around the time I was starting to feel the effects of a quarter-life crisis, I took a vacation with my boyfriend at the time. This is the Caribbean Cruise and Skydiving trip you may remember me talking about.

This is the trip where I truly found myself - in skydiving. By the time I got back to Cleveland, I had already booked my next skydive and was prepared to earn my A-level license by the end of the season - a goal that has been surpassed as I earned my B-level license a few weeks back!

The relationships with my family have been strengthened, and my brother married a girl who fits perfectly into our dynamic. A great sister-in-law for sure.

I'm also dating an amazing man who shares in my passion of throwing myself out of aircraft and is a fellow adrenaline junkie.

As for work, I've begun to take my career into my own hands. I have a 5-year plan that, if I put my head into it, will make my career seem less like 'work' and more like fun (after all, shouldn't you love what you do? I certainly wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't love the work I'm doing...).

A couple weeks ago I took stock of all these things and realized that, though it took me almost 4 years, I've accomplished my goal of making myself happy.

I am happy.

(See? A life-long friend and me at my brother's wedding)

I wake up in the morning with a smile on my face, knowing that I'll get to do at least one thing that I'm passionate about every day - usually more. I'm blessed with some of the best friends a girl could ask for. There are opportunities coming at me from all angles, and I'm continuing to soak us as much knowledge about photography, marketing, skydiving, and life in general with each passing day.

This is what happiness is all about.

I wish everyone could be quite so lucky.

What are some of the things that make you happiest in this world?

Cheers!

-A