Welcome 2021!

The first day of a new year always brings with it the feeling of a fresh start and so many possibilities. This year, more than ever, there is hope that this one will be better than the last.

We all know that in general, 2020 was rough, to say the least.

This Match.com commercial made me LOL.

But it's not my style to say that nothing good came from it and the whole year was a waste. In any difficult situation, I think it's important to look for the silver linings. What can I say, I'm an eternal optimist.

I still have a job. A good job. And while a lot of other companies had projects put on hold, I not only had things to work on, I was BUSY. I'm lucky.

I got to try working from home for the first time. And I have to say, I'm a big fan of wearing slippers instead of shoes, not having to put on makeup on days I don't have video meetings, and having my dog five feet away to look over at during a stressful day. I finally got that window desk I've always wanted, and I feel like I have a lot more energy in natural light rather than fluorescent. I don't have to pack a lunch or decide when to head home for dinner. Plus, that ten-second commute is pretty convenient.

The professional organizations I'm involved in pivoted really well to virtual meetings and events. The Women in Architecture and Young Architects Forum groups especially were very active and hosted a number of successful online events. Zoom allowed me to be a part of committee meetings I wasn't able to make it to before. And the Milk District Design Committee grew and made progress on a few big projects. I can't wait to continue that this year.

And probably the biggest thing for me personally - at the beginning of the year, before social distancing was a thing, this happened:

I got married... and then the world fell apart? Photo by Darling Juliet Photography

Chris and I got married on March 7. After the wedding, we spent a few days at Walt Disney World as a kind of mini vacation since we weren't doing a honeymoon right away - because who wants to get married on Saturday and then go right back to work on Monday? So we spent four days going to every park and spending time with friends and family who were still in town. The day we got back home from Disney was the day COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. I remember seeing the news on TV as we rolled our suitcases through the lobby of our building.

We are so lucky we were able to have the wedding day we did. One week later and we most likely would have had to cancel. We're lucky we got to go to Disney before everything closed down. And we're lucky we didn't plan to leave on an international trip right after the wedding, because best case, it would have been cancelled; worst case, we could have flown somewhere only to have to come straight back or not even have been able to return.

I knew at the beginning of 2020 that after the wedding would be more like the new year for me. January and February were basically nonstop with final to-do list items (I understand completely now why they say wedding planning is stressful - it's not just picking out colors!) I knew that March was going to be more of a reset than January this time. Obviously I had no idea to what extent.

I think it was in April that I chose my guiding word of the year.

I had heard before of people selecting a word for the year, but I was never able to narrow it down to just one. Until this year. It just felt right.

Clear.

It felt right because it had several different meanings for me:

A clearer schedule.

Without wedding to-do list items and final planning meetings, I saw my schedule looking a lot more open. No, I was never one of those people this year complaining about being bored, because I always had plenty to do. But I definitely saw more time open up once I didn't have a big personal deadline (with constant mini-deadlines, research, decisions, details and DIYs).

A focused mind.

With what felt like a million details to coordinate with vendors, wedding party and family, it was really hard to concentrate as the wedding got closer. I looked forward to having these things off my mind and being able to focus on what I was doing every day.

A clear path.

My entire life, I always had a career goal I was working toward. Graduate high school. Get into college. Get an internship. Graduate. Create a portfolio. Get into grad school. Pass my exams. After I got licensed, I thought to myself, "Now what?" I needed a new goal to work toward. What kind of architect do I want to be? What types of projects do I want to focus on? What do I want to be known for? I'm still working on this one.

Physical space.

I pretty much went straight from grad school to studying for exams to wedding planning, so I didn't have a lot of time to work on organizing the space around me. I did a lot of work on this in 2020 but I still have more to go.

A clear voice.

This meaning to CLEAR came later in the year. I knew I wanted to be able to speak up. Have the confidence to know what I'm talking about. To ask for what I want. This is another one that takes some time.

My word of the year was something that guided me throughout 2020.

On this first day of 2021, I'm still working on what word I want to guide me this year.

Do you choose a word of the year? What is yours? How do you choose it? Let me know!