No Longer Lost

Hello beautiful platform, thank you for waiting. It’s been a while.

Last time we spoke, Bryson and I had just hiked and stayed overnight on top of a sacred mountain. A few days later, we started packing up our lives on the other side of the world, doing our best to ready ourselves for the end of the 2016 Japanese adventure.

I still have some special moments to share from our time away, but to tell you the truth, it’s been hard letting the last of the memories go. Please understand that I need a bit of time with them before I am able to share them with you all, but also trust that they will come your way, in time, they will come.

As you may have seen in a previous blog post, for the year of 2016, I decided against resolutions and chose to live up to a word instead. The word I chose was “grow”, or should I say it chose me…

I’m not entirely sure where the word came from, but it sort of popped into my head before the year even started, sort of like a little heads-up for the year ahead. Although I questioned it, I chose to trust the word and live by it to the best of my abilities. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, and my time in Japan, you’ll know that that lil’ old word rang oh so true!

We started 2017 with friends, midnight temple walks, and 6am Karaoke ballads. Ten days later, we would be leaving the crazy and amazing country that had become our home over the past year.

It was both exciting and hard coming back to Canada. We both had butterflies about how we would feel coming back to a place that we had grown so far from.

Slowly but surely we slept off our time difference, and surrounded ourselves with the city we grew up in.

If I’m being honest, it’s been a difficult adjustment for me. Similar to what many other travellers have experienced, we went from exploring new places every day to strolling through a city that we knew better than the back of our hands. I felt lost in a place I knew so well, because I felt like I had left a large part of myself and my personal growth back in Japan.

That is when my new word for the year of 2017 chose me. This year is going to be the year of “me”.

Now I know this might sound selfish but really, a little selfishness is ok if you’re dedicating it to bettering yourself.

Through this year of me I have decided to:

Believe.

Give.

Trust.

Accept.

Focus.

Dream.

Create.

Learn.

Commit.

Forgive.

Care.

Question.

and Transform into someone who is no longer lost, but knows exactly who she is.

So let’s catch up and talk about what I’ve been up to lately…

I went snowshoeing for the first time in 12 years.
I went snowmobiling for the first time ever with my love.
I’ve learned how to snowboard in 2 days.
I’ve given myself a minor black eye.
I’ve almost given myself a concussion.
I’ve soaked my cold bones in a hot tub overlooking the most beautiful snowy mountains I have ever seen.
I’ve become a vegetarian.
I’ve started doing yoga almost every second day.
I’ve put myself out there and met amazingly beautiful like-minded people.
I’ve been asked to be a bridesmaid!
I have been spending a lot of time with my love, my family, and my friends.
I’ve been honest about my feelings in every situation.
AND I’ve listened to my inner self and thanked her everyday for being brave enough to focus on what she truly wants.