In January of 2024, I moved out of the Airbnb I was sharing with Mama and into my first ever official lease with Andrés. I was so excited, and also so terrified. Mama went to visit family in Florida, and if not living with her wasn't enough, this was ripping the bandaid off! For the first week, I cried every day.
Luckily, this giant change was supported by Andrés, the most wonderful man I've ever met. It's hard to get used to living with somebody else, but he made it easy.
I was also lucky enough to have other things to keep me busy. I had found a dance studio in the area that had some pretty advanced dancers and let me do basically whatever I wanted! I ended up teaching (jazz, leaps and turns) four days a week for many, many hours! Although I loved it, my body rebelled and I ended up in some serious back pain. Hard to imagine, but this was for the best. Through this pain, I learned that I had not one, but TWO herniated discs! I've been on the road to recovery ever since.
I wouldn't have to miss Mama for long, because Andrés and I met up with her in Guatemala. I decided to take us all on a week long trip to the most peaceful, beautiful place I could think of: Lake Atitlan! Mama and I were both still in shock I think, and I thought that a week at the lake would do us good.
Atitlan never disappoints, and this was no exception. Along with the beautiful blue water, amazing mountains, and awesome volcanoes, I had an extra special surprise - Andrés proposed!
The rest is history, as they say. I was ecstatic. What better scenery for a proposal than this?!? Mama was there, and she knew all along. I have no idea how she was able to keep the secret. I was all smiles, and not a single tear was shed until I called my best friend, Melissa, to tell her over the news. Her reaction over FaceTime brought on the waterworks.
The only downside to all of this, of course, was that I couldn't stop thinking about how much better it would've been if my dad could've been there. Or, at the very least, if I could've given him a call. For the next many months, I was hit again and again by the things that he wasn't going to be there for.
We kept on living. In April, Mama, Andrés, and I all went to San Andrés, a beautiful Colombian island that's actually closer to Nicaragua than Colombia! Absolute beauty and deep sadness once again mingled. I found that I was able to start talking about my dad without sobbing. I started to talk about memories. I started to heal.
Sometimes, when I was in these beautiful places doing amazing things, I felt intense guilt. How could I dare be happy when my dad was gone? How could I dare do and see such things? And yet, life went on.
In June I got to go back to Florida and visit my family. It was a strange but wonderful feeling to be back in the US again, but this time for a not so devestating reason. All the cousins, aunts and uncles came to see us, and my heart was filled with total happiness. The only downside was my inability to keep myself from gorging on all the delicacies Colombia can't offer me - pretzel sticks, twizzlers, tastycakes...let's just say, my stomach was NOT okay. A week went by quickly, and back home I went.
My birthday came around once more, as it always does, and another surprise was in store! This time, we headed to the hot springs of San Vicente! I've never been to hot springs before, so this was a totally new and cool experience for me. In the past, birthdays have been a bit difficult, because I share mine with Stevie and he's gone through some rough times. I'm happy to share that this one was relatively stress free - I'm sure the hot springs helped with that!
August (San Blas), September (Guatape), and October (the Pacific) have all been documented recently in other blog posts. Looking back, I still can't believe that I was so lucky to be able to go month after month to such incredible places! All of this traveling made me feel lighter, somehow. The darkness that I had been carrying was dissipating.
August had another sorta big thing...I got married! Unconventional as we always are, we hired a party bus to drive us and our guests through Cali and to a beautiful restaurant where we played games, ate cake, and had the best time ever. To everybody's great surprise, Stevie even showed up with his girlfriend, coming all the way from LA! It was the most perfect wedding I could've asked for. August 23rd, 2024, we said our vows and promised a lifetime together - a promise I can't wait to keep.
November, just a couple of weeks ago, took me back to my family in Florida. Once again, I was so happy to be there, but this time I ate less sugar and drank less energy drinks - for some reason, the stomachaches didn't lessen!
And now, here we are. December, 2024. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. The past many years have been quite the journey, but going back and writing this all out was another journey all of its own. I can't believe how much has happened in such a short amount of time - how much I've changed and grown.
I still miss my dad and think about him every day. The universe was cruel to play things out how it did. And yet, when I think about him now, I smile. I see him in the way the lines on my face are slowly appearing. I hear him in certain things Andrés says, or when a 70s song comes on the radio. I still yell at him in anger sometimes, but I think he can handle it.
As for my journey around the world, it's far from over yet. The plans we have for 2025 are bigger and crazier than anything we've done yet. I know - hard to believe. If you'll stick around, we'll write it all down. Hopefully we can inspire somebody else to take a leap of faith into the unknown, in which life will hand you things you never knew you wanted, but should've been hoping for all along.
I told you that 2024 would be better than 2023. What a ride 2025 is sure to be!
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