Meg’s Miles and Smiles is Back, Baby (With an Exciting Announcement!)

Hello, hello. It’s me, Megan.

I know what you’re probably thinking. Who is this Megan you speak of? It can’t be Megan of Meg’s Miles and Smiles, for she completely fell of the face of the Earth for the last month.

Hi, it’s me. I’m the problem.

I can hereby confirm we are one and the same and I am back…finally. You see, December was busy in the best way and I was just not in one place long enough to form a single thought let alone a whole post of them. Although now thinking about it, it’s bold of me to assume any of my blog posts are made up of coherent thoughts, but I digress.

A December Recap

To quickly recap my last thirty days, I…

• Celebrated my 25^th birthday in the Christmas markets of Vienna
• Experienced the Nutcracker in London at Christmas time
• Endured a 24+ hour travel day to make my way back home to California
• Was surprised at LAX by my best friend who flew in just to see me
• Spent the most magical two weeks visiting friends and family at home
• Made my way back to Ireland for Surprise! I Moved to Ireland (the sequel)

If I get my life together maybe I’ll write the posts these events deserve. Maybe.

In the Meantime

Until then I wanted to reintroduce myself into the blogosphere (which surprisingly is a real word?), reflect on what has happened up to this point, and give a preview of what’s to come.

I won’t spend a lot of time recapping my first six months in Ireland because a) that seems like a lot of effort and b) they are very well documented in the rest of the posts on this website. The last thing I would ever want to do is annoy you with endless recounts of my experiences abroad.

If you didn’t pick up on it, that was sarcasm, I literally created a whole website to do exactly that.

A Note About New Years, Followed by a Very Specific Example

I do want to quickly say that as cliché as it is, I really love New Year’s for the same reason I love early mornings: the air of exciting possibility for the day/year to come. It’s like, anything can happen! You can make it whatever you want! How special is that!

This is a weirdly specific example, but it reminds me of when my friend Ellie (I’ll call her Norweiga) and I would wake up at the crack of dawn in high school so we could get to Disneyland before the park opened. Norweiga and I would walk in as soon as the magical gates parted, buy our customary Pumpkin Spice Latte from the Starbucks on Buena Vista street in California Adventure (because everyone knew you went there first to get the Radiator Springs Racers Fastpasses) and I would just stand there for a moment, soak it all in, and think about all of the fun that was in store for us that day. Like I said, weirdly specific.

Looking Back

I also like looking at my previous year holistically – the wins, the losses, and the annual pat on the back for making it another rotation around the sun. This year especially, I am proud that I made goals in January, and probably for the first time in my life, I actually followed through on them. I studied and took the GRE, I ran 365 miles (and so did my family!), and I had this little nugget of an idea to put my words out into the world, and I finally mustered up the courage to make a website and press Publish.

Go Me, I Guess

While this may not seem like a huge deal, I would like to give a little context as to why I am particularly proud of this milestone. Studying for a test is nothing new to me. I’ve been studying and taking tests my whole life. Running, while new, was just another challenge to take on. It was about physicality and consistency and literally the only thing you have to do to be good at running is just not stop running.

Writing blog posts is completely different. Writing is personal – not only am I putting my writing skills, my style, my voice out on display for judgement or criticism, I’m also putting my thoughts, feelings, and opinions out into the world in a very public way. With every entry I am posting a little part of me, and that’s pretty scary.

So, yeah, go me I guess.

Looking Back, Pt. 2

Then the second half of the year came and I moved to Ireland, as one just casually does. Living in a foreign country is such a dichotomy of emotions because you get the opportunities of a lifetime and you feel words-don’t-do-it-justice grateful for that, but sometimes you also feel like you would give that all up just to hug your mom or sleep in your own bed or even run to Target to pick up a new deodorant. I’ve tried my best to capture all of that in my posts up to this point, and will continue to be as honest as possible as I document this crazy ride.

Show off @Ireland.

For example, after spending the majority of two weeks constantly surrounded by my favorite people in the world in California, I returned back to my dark, cold horse stable by myself and thought, “I don’t know if I can do this all over again.”

She Believed She Could, So She Did

But I also know I’ve been in situations like this before, and I’ve proven to myself that I can make the most of them. It’s also not something I have to take on completely alone. I have the best support system here in Sligo (and the surrounding areas) who are going through very similar situations and don’t give it a second thought when you call and say, “I’m feeling lonely, can we do a movie night?” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Sligo(ish) crew is the best in the business and I’m eternally thankful for them.

Looking Ahead

And then I got excited because I have a whole lot to look forward to in 2023 that will be once again new and scary and hard and exciting all at the same time and in completely new ways. I have so many people making the effort to come visit me in the coming months. I’m going to become an aunt for the first time! I am going to (hopefully) find a permanent job in a place I get to choose for the first time ever. I will get to decorate an apartment and not have to think about how I’m going to pack it all up at the end of the year. And the goals I set last year? I’m going to do them again, but better.

Goals, But Better

Last year my family walked/ran 365 miles; this year, we’re doing 500. Last year I took the GRE; this year, it’s my goal to apply to grad school. Which leads me to my goals for this blog. Last year, I put my toe in the water of blogging. This year, I’m going to try very very hard to jump all the way in. What does that mean, you ask?

It means, dear readers, that I am going to make every attempt to post on the same day every week – Terrific Tuesdays. (still workshopping the title, but we’ll go with this for now).

Now, I don’t promise perfection because life happens when you’re working full-time and traveling and you know, applying to jobs and such, but it is my goal to build on what I have started and be disciplined with this as I try to be with other goals and tasks. So if you’ve been following along up to this point, I will summarize my goals for 2023 because it will hold me accountable and also you can all laugh at me this time next year if I don’t accomplish them:

My 2023 Goals So You Can Laugh at Me If I Don’t Accomplish Them

1. Run/walk 500 miles
2. Find a permanent job after finishing my development program in Ireland
3. Apply for grad school
4. Post to MMS the same day each week (Terrific Tuesdays!)
5. Write down one positive thing that happened every day (my tagline is aggressively positive content, after all)

There you go. If you ever wondered if this blog is just a very public way for me to write in my journal, now you can know for sure. Yes it is.

Looking Ahead, Pt. 2

So maybe give me a week to get my life together, but in the coming soon I hope to finally post about the dang Portugal trip we went on in October (I know, I’m the worst), the Nice Muffins Megan Banana Muffin recipe I promised, Vienna, London, and all the things coming down the pipeline (did someone say a ski trip to Switzerland??)

2022 was jam-packed, but I already have my sights set (and I’m ready to aim!) on 2023 . As HOSM aptly titled our yearly joint Spotify playlist: 2023, a Prime Year. And I say there’s no reason not to make it the primest year of all. The primiest? The most prime? I’ve got it: More prime than my Amazon account.

A Disney State of Mind

So let’s embrace this year like high-school Megan and Norweiga embraced a day at Disneyland: strategized, over-caffeinated, and wildly enthusiastic for the times to come. 

MMS is back, baby.

A Final Note

I wrote a lot in this post about how it took courage to start this blog and put myself out there. Well, it made my heart so full to hear that people have been enjoying the blog posts so far about my time here in Ireland! I have so enjoyed writing them – it’s been a great way to take a snapshot of each moment in time and reflect on each moment as it happens. Thank you for reading, it means the world to me and I can’t wait to keep documenting the wild ride 🙂