Best of 2024 | End-of-Year Survey

1) What did you do in 2024 that you’ve never done before? 

• Went snow tubing
• Got my nose pierced
• Went strawberry picking
• Started seeing a chiropractor and getting spinal adjustments
• Stayed over at a blogger’s house!! (Thanks, Kim!)
• Experienced hurricane loss – my car got totaled due to flooding

2) Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, my former boss/good friend gave birth to a baby girl in February and my cousin gave birth to a baby boy in September.

3) Did anyone close to you die?

No.

4) What places did you visit?

New Orleans, Chicago, and the Bahamas.

5) What would you like to have in 2025 that you didn’t have in 2024?

A stricter budget, an earlier bedtime, and more dates

6) What dates from 2024 will be etched in your memory forever?

September 26 – the night I watched my parking lot fill up with water and my car get flooded

November 6 – the day I woke up and immediately learned that Trump was going to win the election. What an awful, terrible day.

7) What was your biggest achievement this year?

Advocating for myself. I had to advocate for myself multiple times this year. For example, I had to get my doctor to approve a sleep study to find out if I have sleep apnea (and it turns out I do). I also had to advocate for myself with my dermatologist to be super clear that my scalp psoriasis was affecting my quality of life and we needed to take drastic measures (so I started steroid shots).

8) What was your biggest challenge?

My physical health was quite the challenge this year. Between feeling tired all the time and then finding out I have severe obstructive sleep apnea, needing chiropractic adjustments for my sciatica, dealing with really terrible flares with my scalp psoriasis condition, and having two massive cysts in my underarm that erupted and needed medical attention… well, my physical health took a beating.

9) Did you suffer from illness or injury?

I never got ill this year, so that’s a positive! I did deal with some injuries, like sciatica and inflamed abscesses.

10) What was the best thing you bought?

Ruby! She’s a beautiful 2025 Kia Soul, and I love her with my whole heart. Getting a brand-new car was not on my 2024 bingo card, but Hurricane Helene had other plans for me.

11) Where did most of your money go?

The majority of it went to bills and food.

12) What did you get really, really excited about?

Honestly, I’m not sure if there was anything I got super excited about this year. It was not exactly the best year for me for a variety of reasons, but I know I had a lot of anticipation for my cruise in December and for the holiday season.

13) What authors did you discover in 2024?

Some new-to-me authors I discovered in 2024 include Ashley Poston, Jessica Joyce, Rufi Thorpe, Jesse Q. Sutanto, Ally Carter, and Alison Espach. And I read the debuts of the following authors this year: Andrew Boryga (Victim – ★★★★☆), Shelley Read (Go as a River – ★★★★★), Freida McFadden (The Housemaid – ★★★★☆), and Ali Hazelwood (The Love Hypothesis – ★★★★☆).

14) What do you wish you had done more of? 

More dates, more therapy, more reaching out to friends

15) What do you wish you had done less of?

Less spending money, less worrying, less laziness

16) How did you spend Christmas?

Oh, it was such a good day! I slept in until 8:30, had a bowl of cereal, and then snuggled under the couch with a Christmas blanket to drink my coffee and read my book. After that, I made mashed potatoes for our family dinner (watching episodes of The Circle while doing so). Then, I got ready quickly, transferred all of my presents down to my car, and headed to my mom’s house. We had a lovely time opening presents (you guys, my mom and brother chipped in together to get me an iPad! I was astonished!) and then eating dinner and dessert. We also watched the Chiefs game and I was pleasantly surprised that Netflix was able to pull off such a massive live stream! (Good job, guys.) I got home around 5, gave the girls their presents, and then lounged on the couch for most of the night.

17) What was your favorite TV program?

The Circle was a really fun discovery this year – I’m quickly working my way through their seasons (I’m on season 5!). I also discovered Suits this year, although I haven’t done a great job of bingeing the series. (Fun fact: After watching the first episode, I told my mom about the show. She watched the ENTIRE SERIES before I had finished season 1. Ha!)

18) What did you want and get?

I wanted to sleep better and got that, thanks to my CPAP machine. I had no idea how exhausted I really was until I started experiencing good sleep with my machine.

I wanted to make some strides in my fitness habits, and I definitely improved in that area! I joined a gym, started attending HIIT classes, and now have a four-day-a-week exercise routine.

19) What did you want and not get?

I wanted to go for more walks outside and I definitely struggled with that (but hey, this is mostly because I’m now getting my exercise in a gym setting so…)

I wanted to play with the cats more and that was a struggle. WHY?!

I wanted to save more money and, aha, nope.

20) What was your favorite film of 2024?

I’ve been dreading this question. I only saw three movies in 2024: The Idea of You, We Live in Time, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. How sad! If I had to choose a favorite movie from that list, I’d choose We Live in Time, mostly because Florence Pugh is EVERYTHING.

21) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 37 this year and my birthday fell on Thanksgiving. It was actually kind of a letdown to have my birthday on Thanksgiving. At the risk of sounding incredibly selfish, I felt like the holiday overshadowed my birthday. I mean, it is what it is. A Thanksgiving birthday is just a lot more fun when you’re a kid, I think.

22) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

I wish I could have moved into a two-bedroom apartment. While I don’t regret staying in my one-bedroom apartment for another year (especially because my rent is $500 cheaper), it would be nice to have a bigger space and an extra bedroom to use as a home office.

23) Who kept you sane?

My mom. She’s my rock, my anchor, my safe place.

24) What are five things you are grateful for this year?

• My cats – These girls are my everything. I love when Eloise makes me scooch over in my office chair so she can sit right next to me and when Lila jumps on the bed in the morning and pokes me with her paw for pets. I had a health scare with Eloise this year, but it turned out to be nothing, and I am so grateful for that.
• My home – I love my apartment and I love that I can live independently and alone. Living alone is one of my favorite things and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
• My friends – We have unlocked deeper levels of our friendship dynamics this year. It’s been a hard year for a lot of us but we’ve made it through with each other’s support. Whether that’s supportive texts or spontaneous dinners or helpful advice, we’ve lifted each other up in our times of need.
• My new therapist – I’ve only had three appointments with my therapist but she’s already changing my life. It feels like such serendipity that we found each other!
• My mom and my brother – My ride or dies. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. I am so grateful for our relationship, our closeness, and our inside jokes.

25) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2024.

You are your best advocate. If something doesn’t feel right, if the treatment regimen isn’t working, say something. You deserve to feel good and to live your best life. I have a really hard time speaking up even when I’m in a doctor’s office because I don’t want to be a burden. And I’m always worried I’m not going to be heard. I had to fight to get a sleep study and had to be very clear with my dermatologist that I needed drastic measures for my scalp psoriasis. And it’s not as if my doctors weren’t amenable to these treatments, but I did have to use my voice to make sure they happened. And I am so very glad I did.

26) What would you rate your level of happiness on a scale of 1-10 this year?

I think I’d give it a 6. This year was a weird one. Nothing exceptional happened, but also nothing terrible happened. It was just one of those years where things were just okay. My mental health was up and down and, like I’ve mentioned, I dealt with quite a few physical health issues that put a damper on my year.

27) If you could change one thing that happened this year, what would it be?

Oh, I really wish the storm surge from Hurricane Helene hadn’t flooded my car and destroyed the homes of two of my friends. That would have been really cool.

28) How have you changed over this past year?

Well, for one thing, I’m getting much better sleep now than I was at the beginning of this year and for many years prior! Being on a CPAP machine has been life-changing. Before being on CPAP therapy, I was having 40+ apneas an hour (a period of time where I stop breathing for 10 seconds or more), my blood oxygen levels were 90-91% on average (some nights, they even dropped below 90%, which is terrifying), and I was getting less than 10 minutes of deep sleep every night. I was also waking up almost every morning with a headache, needed a nap to get through every day, and experienced a lot of brain fog. I’ve now been using my CPAP machine for four months and my blood oxygen levels are now normal, I’m sometimes getting upwards of an entire hour of deep sleep (the ideal range being 1.5-2 hours), and I feel a whole lot more energized and alert. It’s been an amazing change to my physical health.

29) How did this year surprise you? 

It’s been a constant refrain in this post, but all of the physical ailments I dealt with this year were a surprise. I did not expect to be diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and I did not expect to need steroid shots in my scalp to calm down my psoriasis. I did not expect to need so many trips to the dermatologist.

And I really did not expect to deal with the aftermath of hurricanes. My city is still reeling from the damage. My friends are still living in temporary housing (this is month three for them and will probably be another few months before they can move back home). Our beloved Tropicana Field is still without a roof. It was just in the past week or so that all of the debris that was piling up on people’s lawns got picked up by the city. It will be a long rebuilding process for our city.

30) Show us one of your favorite photos from the year.

This was such a fun night! I love this picture of the six of us with our flower bouquets, and I love the beautiful representation of our friendship that I feel from this picture. This was a night filled with love and laughter and so many compliments. I’m so grateful for these ladies and how we have gotten through 2024 together.

What was your biggest achievement and challenge in 2024?