November & December 2020 | Recap

Yes, I know we are halfway through January, but I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the tail end of 2020 – a year that… well, you don’t need me to tell you!

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​I spent November and December mostly off the internet, and all in one place (my hometown), so here’s a little update on how the end of the most “unprecedented” year ever went!​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​Where was I in November & December?

• Countries: USA
• Cities: Lansing, Michigan
• Flights: 0
• Days on the road: 0

November & December on the blog…

I did not publish a single blog post in November or December – ​​​​​​​my bad!​​​​​​​

Honestly, that wasn’t planned but when I realized in December that I hadn’t blogged in weeks, I felt pretty okay with that.

See, I had a LOT going on in November and December…

November & December adventured like…

• The biggest news? I started a new job! Two new jobs, to be precise…
• My first new job is as an occupational therapist, which feels amazing after such a long journey to get my degree, and transfer that degree over from the UK so I could work in the USA. I started work in November. After staying home for so long it’s kind of odd to suddenly be considered a “frontline worker,” seeing COVID patients on a regular basis. I love it, though!
• My second new job is as a contract mental health writer for Verywell Health. It is very interesting and better than that, it is guaranteed work each month. I have loved freelance writing over the course of 2020, but not gonna lie… I did get burned out from pitching each individual article! With this gig, I have a guaranteed four articles to write each month, no pitching required.
• Holidays sans travel. My family usually has multiple gatherings where the aunts, uncles, cousins, and everyone gets together. My parents and I opted not to do that this year to keep everyone safe. Since I’ve been living with my parents, though, I still got to have Thanksgiving and Christmas with them which I was very, very grateful for!
• I received the COVID vaccine. Perks of being a healthcare worker once again, is that I was able to receive my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on December 22 – a great Christmas gift! (I’m now fully vaccinated, and wrote about what that means for my travel plans here.)

Upcoming in January 2021…

We’re more than halfway through January as I write this, whoops. But I knew that January would be full of continued work training for my relatively new occupational therapist role. ​​​​​​​To be honest, other than a 30 minute barre3 ​ workout each day (which I just started and totally love!), work has pretty much taken over my life. Here’s hoping for a better work-life balance as we get more into 2021.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I would also be totally remiss if I didn’t mention the INAUGURATION, which was the main thing I was looking forward to in January. I was so happy to see it go off safely yesterday. I was even able to watch a bit of it at my patients’ houses during the work day. I’m sure I’ll reflect a bit more on that in my January recap, I’m getting ahead of myself 😉

​​​​​​​How has your 2021 started?