Chicago Check-In

I have now been in Chicago for a little over a month and half now and I am still loving it. Even though this is obviously my new permanent home and I've already said this, I still feel like I'm on vacation. I don't know when it will actually set in that I am not going back to live in NYC again. It's so strange. I am legit shocked that I got acclimated very quickly and this change of locale wasn't as challenging as I imagined it would be. Change has never been an easy thing for me so the fact that this hasn't been super difficult still (who knows, it may hit me in another few weeks) is seriously shocking to me.

So what's been going on here you ask? How am I keeping busy with myself? What the heck have I been doing? Well, here's the lowdown of my fresh start here back in Chi-town...

My baby is FIVE: Happy Blogiversary

This little blog that I started on a whim on August 27, 2011 turned FIVE YEARS OLD yesterday. It's kind of crazy to think that Someone Will Appreciate has been my little baby for the last five years. When I first started this bad boy, it was because I thought/knew I had important many things to say. In the past five years, I have written about TV shows, movies, music, sports, boys, work, running, workouts, poop, travel, or all the things in between. (Well not "all the things" because my parents read this and can't know ALL the details of my life. They might need to have a little birds and the bees chat with me if that was the case. I kid, I kid. Wait, do I?) But basically, since I'm a habitual over-sharer in real life and in my writing, most of the things that cross my mind, no matter how personal (good or bad), get written on this blog. I know I say it all the time, but this blog has become my outlet. If I need to get something off my chest, I write about it. If I feel I have something really important to say, I write about. If I have a funny (yet appropriate if my mom and dad saw it) story I want to share, boom, I'll write about it. I really do love to write, and this blog has allowed me to do just that. I don't care if five people or 5000 people (I wish) read what I have to say, I feel better when I write it. Plus, I now have a permanent record of what happened in my life and will always be able to go back and read and reflect on it. It's actually pretty freaking cool.

I live in Chicago now...

I have officially been an adult Chicago resident for a full week now and am loving every second of it. Running along the lake. Going to the beach. Seeing the gorillas at the zoo whenever I want. Being so close to my parents. Having a "big" apartment. So far, so good ChiTown.

Okay, so even though I live here now, it still feels like I'm here on vacation and just staying at an Airbnb (which I've never even done before) and not here permanently. I always come home for about two weeks this time every summer so this just seems like instead of staying at my parents house, I am at an awesome apartment in the city. I am exploring the neighborhood and trying to just enjoy myself as much as I can. I don't think it will truly hit me that this is my new home until my NYC friends all start going back to work and Labor Day comes and goes.

Check: My NYC Bucket List

With a little less than a month to go living in NYC and a summer off, I am trying to enjoy myself as much as possible and take in as much of this city as I possibly can. I feel like I have to get my last licks of my favorite places and foods and just get out as much as I can.

So many people keep asking me what I'm going to do with my limited time left here. They keep asking me what's on my "NYC Bucket List" and at first I really had to think about it a lot. In my 12 years living here, I've really seen and done a whole lot of stuff. Like a lot. The fact I'm such an active and curious person has allowed me to see and do so much in my time here. Running has helped me cover a lot of ground and having visitors come quite often has also allowed me to get to places I wouldn't normally go see (like museums or other touristy things). If it's on a New York "MUST" list, I've probably done it multiple times. 

One Big Leap...

"Hello fear. Thank you for being here You're my indication that I'm doing what I need to do." And let me tell you, right now I am scared shitless. But I am also very excited and very hopeful. It still hasn't totally sunken in yet, but last week I made the final decision to leave my job as a teacher (and a coach) and also make the move back home to Chicago. These were two major life decisions made very quickly but with a ton of thought. They were things I had been thinking about over the last year and I finally had to pull the band-aid off and do it. Were they the right decisions? I don't know. Were they the smartest decisions? I'm not sure. But did they need to be made? Yes.