Regret

A couple years ago, my family and I sat around my grandfather as he told stories about his life. What he’s seen, what he’s done, how times have changed (specifically, the fact that he bought his first and only home for he and his bride for $11k... like what?). Anyways, towards the end of the night, he emphasized that “you’ll only regret the things you didn’t do.”

That really stuck. I made a pact with myself to really get out there more, visit Utah more, see family more, see my friends more. Some really concrete things that will 100 percent blow up back at me if I keep sitting back.

Three years later, I think that water is bubbling and my lid is teetering on the pot. I’ve told my husband this a dozen times, about venturing more and he whole-heartedly agrees. However, it all sounds so good in your mind until reality starts trickling in and just fucks your day up.

When it comes down to it, and there’s something we want to do, we step back when money gets involved and those trip ideas fizzle away. We get overly stressed about the cost and talk ourselves out of it. And these aren’t lavish trips to Europe — just going home or maybe do a girl's trip somewhere in the States. It’s such a horrible habit I can’t get used to, or I will boil over.

When I told my husband tonight that I wanted to travel more or just see more things, he laughed and said we did a lot this year! Maybe insinuating I wasn’t being totally grateful of the things we DID do? Probably.

So let’s reflect on the new places we have gone to or did together in 2017 (thanks Instagram, for jogging me memory).

January:

• Charity trip for work in my home town, Tampa.

February:

• Went to Hawaii together
• Helped my bff set up a wedding in Winter Park, Florida
• Visited my brother and sister-in-law’s place for the first time in Naples, Florida and met my niece.

March:

• Went snowboarding at Sundance

April:

• Went roller skating together

May:

• Went to Las Vegas together (twice in one month!)
• Had my parents spend Mother’s Day with us in Utah
• Attended a Make-A-Wish event together

June:

• Said goodbye to my grandparents' house in California
• Drove by myself from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara
• Started a new job

July:

• Attended a Humane Society event together
• Actually used birthday freebies from my email lol
• Started bike riding thanks to the best birthday gift ever (credit to the hubs)

August:

• Participated in the Solar Eclipse
• Went to concert with hubs supporting LGBTQ

September:

• Meeting up with my brother’s foreign exchange student from 2004 from Germany
• Went INTO a hurricane lol

October:

• Visited Olympic Park
• Tried new restaurants in Park City (AKA sake from a sushi restaurant)
• Went to Boston

November:

• Took an exclusive tour of the Vivint SmartHome Arena
• Got a new tattoo
• Sat court side to a Jazz game
• Got a big Christmas tree!
• Airbnb’d to Palm Coast

December:

• Saw my sister-in-law in her high school Christmas choir concert
• Participated in an escape room game

Okay, so shit, we did a lot of new things, at least two things new every month. That is awesome. This totally triggered something I’m going to journal every year. However, this was another year past where I didn't visit my grandparents, or meet my husband's for the first time and I am so aware that the clock is ticking. So, moving forward, I'll stop worrying about money when it comes to visiting those we have so little time with.