And Just Like That, The Blog is Back -

Hello from the city, friend!

Just Call Me Carrie

As you can imagine, and as I probably stated in a previous post, I had grand plans of moving to the Bay and living out my glamorous west-coast-Carrie Bradshaw life. In my head was the vision of a girl eloquently documenting one of the most terrifying and magical times of her life – her mid-twenties – while living in the big city with some of her best friends. What I found instead was a very busy, tired, happy girl with a long to-do list and a strict(ish) 9:30pm bed time.

Or Not

Because unlike Carrie, I cannot afford a big-city apartment on a blogger’s income (or in my blog’s case, no income), and therefore have to put my big-girl pants on every day and go to my big-girl job. This may come as a shock, but this sequence of events (coupled with a two hour roundtrip commute) leaves little time to write .

And I can’t help but wonder, is this what adulthood truly is? Working hard to be able to live a cool life and then not even having enough time to blog about the cool life because you’re working so hard? Which then made me ask myself, should I just give up the blog all together?
– Me

But alas, in true Megan fashion, a series of completely self-inflicted unfortunate events unfolded, ultimately making the decision for me.

A Series of Self-Inflicted Unfortunate Events

A few weeks ago I received an email reminding me of the annual auto-renewal of my domain name. I read the email, acknowledged the email, then quickly filed the email away in my head as a problem for a later Megan.

As she always does, that later Megan arrived with a vengeance, this time in the form of a shockingly large charge on her credit card and a renewed interest in reviving this here blog (completely unrelated, of course).

I did attempt a brief crowd-funding initiative, and by that I mean I tried to guilt my family into donating to my cause. They were unsympathetic to my plight of forgetting to cancel the subscription, especially once it came out this was the second year in a row this happened. It was then when I decided to take responsibility for my actions (or lack thereof) and breathe life back into this hobby that I have so regrettably neglected.

So with all that, if I haven’t been writing, then what the heck have I been up to the last I-don’t-even-want-to-count number of months?

Well, I’m glad you asked.

What The Heck I Have Been Up To

Life! I have been completely and utterly consumed by life and it has been amazing and exhausting in all the best ways.
– Me

In the past eight months I have relocated to a new(ish) country/state/city, moved in with one of my best friends, began a new role in a new division of the company, trained for and ran a marathon, watched my one-year-old niece/best friend take her first steps, joined a rec volleyball league, eaten the best croissant of my life, hosted friends and family in the city, had wine/pizza/venting nights with my roommate, hiked, sang my heart out at concerts, went on dates, became a habitual coffee drinker, had dance parties with my little cousins, reconnected with old friends, met new people, and soft launched a sad excuse for a run club!

San Francisco has been a truly fulfilling experience filled with family, friends, and personal, and professional growth.

But! (There’s Always a But)

But, as is a common theme in my blogs, I think it’s important to acknowledge that it has not always been a completely seamless transition into this new chapter of life. Each one of those things introduced its own set of unique hurdles, but in a way that has challenged me to grow and adapt yet again to a better version of myself.

Work Is Hard

The first six months of my new role I would routinely come home and vent to my roommate, nickname Miranda Plus, about how completely, utterly inadequate I felt in every aspect of my new job. I would go to the office bathroom in the middle of the day to give pep talks and try to remind myself that I am not in fact stupid, just doing something completely new.

I Have No Excuse For This One, I Did It to Myself

During marathon training I gave up a fragile social life I was trying to build (and normal looking toenails) in favor of pursuing a goal that pushed me beyond every limit I had ever set for myself.

Making Friends Is Hard

Living in a new city I have encountered the seemingly ubiquitous challenge of making new friends as an adult. I went from having an amazing group in Ireland to panicking if my two friends happen to be out of town at the same time because, well, they’re all I’ve got. You would think if so many people were in the same boat on this it would, I don’t know, solve itself. And yet, it persists.

Andddd Finish With a Positive Spin (A Megan Classic)

All of this is to show there is so much good to life, so much to be thankful for, but at the same time, you can validate the hard things too. You can acknowledge that both exist, and that it’s okay to have days where you come home from work, put hood from your comfiest hoodie over your head, curl up in a blanket on the couch, and stare out into the abyss because even turning on the tv seems like too much effort. And then Miranda Plus assumes her own position on the couch, hands you a glass of wine, and says, “yeah me too.” And you feel just a little bit better.

So yeah, that took a tangent, as these pseudo-journal entries of mine often do. But if you’re down for that sort of thing, then I’m glad you’re here.

And just like that, I realized I’m really glad I’m here too.
– Me

Maybe, just maybe, the auto-renew wasn’t an accident I thought it was; maybe at a subconscious level, I wasn’t quite ready to give up this thing after all.

Cheers to yet another year of MMS, and all that comes with it.