The Year of the Kate: A Recap

28.   Where do I begin?  I guess I could begin at the top, and say that 28 was the best. year. of. my. life.

So much happened while I was 28, and yet on the surface, almost everything appears as it did a year ago.  Underneath, though, change has happened.  Something silent started happening a year or two ago, unintentionally and un-intrusively.  I am not sure what exactly - a metamorphosis?  I'm still me, and yet, I've changed. I'm more comfortable in my skin and body and shoes than I have ever been before.  I own my life and my choices and I feel more like... me.  I am who I am.  That's not much, but it also might be everything.  I'm not saying it's the meaning of life... but it just might be.  Being who you are.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention how 28 started (gloriously!) as my brother proposed to his longtime love Kelly two weeks after my birthday.  I jumped for their joy.. and for my own.  I bridesmaid-ed and toasted and celebrated.. and eagerly awaited their wedding day this fall.

I traveled.  To Italy!  And St. Louis, and New York, and Los Angeles, and New York again, and of course Iowa.  (Always Iowa!)

I celebrated love.  My own, and the love of my friends, and of people I don't know at all.  I hosted an engagement party, a bachelorette party, a bridal shower.

I ran more than ever before.  It calmed my fears and stoked my confidence.  It released me.  It ignited me.  I ran for hot chocolate, Summer Shandy, and my own pride.  I ran 5Ks, 10Ks and a half marathon.    I ran up a mountain - twice.  I rode a bike for thirty miles on Lake Shore Drive.

I drank and ate and danced and sang. 

I popped bottles of champagne, and cans of PBR.

I cherished my family, my cousinfriends, my girlfriends, and my freedom.

I wrote about feminism, and terrorists, and my family.

I thought about motherhood.  I thought about family.  I thought about life.

I turned inward, and contemplated the future.  I turned outward, and lived in the moment.

I exhaled and inhaled and rinsed and repeated. I wanted more and embraced less.  I smiled, I laughed, I prayed, I thanked.

28 was a spectacular year.  But I think (hope!) 29 can beat it.

Here I am 29.  Let's do this.