Okay, everyone, we did it, 2020 is finally coming to an end, and oh boy was this year a doozy. It really was a year unlike any other.

Time passed by slowly (like really slowly) and it seemed as if this year would never end. But it did and if you're anything like us you are ready for 2021 to begin.

Before the year is officially over we wanted to give 2020 some love in the form of a blog post. It wasn't all bad, mostly bad yes, but there are silver linings here and there.

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Recap of Our 2020

On December 31st, 2019 we counted down to the new year with nothing but high hopes. We really felt like 2020 was gonna be a great year.

We finally paid off our student loans and retired the tiny home. There was nothing standing in our way...or so we thought.

The year was going to be filled with traveling more than we ever had before. But alas, a global pandemic had other things in mind.

Original Plans

It's almost sad to look back and think about our original plans for 2020. You can probably guess that anything on the calendar went right out the window.

To begin with some good news we were able to start off the year with a Utah road trip and visited all five National Parks. Then everything came to halt.

· Related: The perfect Utah Road Trip ·

Some of our major plans involved a mega trip to Mexico, taking off more time from work, and checking off more USA destinations from our map. Of course, none of this happened.

Plans Change

Sometimes plans change and it doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Because of everything that happened we ended up

• Staying with Family in Ohio for three months
• Moving to Portland
• Spent Time Working Apart

2020 Wasn't All Bad

When all is said and done 2020 wasn't all bad. I mean don't get us wrong, it was a bad year but there were some good parts sprinkled in.

The year created a chance to experience things we would have otherwise missed. Even if it wasn't the most fun, we have some takeaways for the future.

Learned a Thing or Two

The main thing we learned from 2020 was that our life needed some form of an overhaul. We were moving at a fast speed and somewhere along the way, we forgot to slow down and take it all in.

The goal was to always be improving but some areas were being overlooked. We had a plan and were just going for the finish line.

The halt in 2020 bought us time to stop and re-evaluate everything. It was time for a complete makeover.

After getting out of student loan debt we kind of paid less attention to our budget. We were so happy to have more financial freedom that we were going over our food budget just for silly little restaurant splurges.

But there's nothing like unemployment to make you sit back and check the funds. It was a BIG reminder to stick to our budget because after all, it's there for a reason.

We were also slacking on our health because even though we exercise regularly, our food intake was basically sugar and fried foods. All the cooking at home helped us restart and get back to a mostly plant-based diet...with candy for dessert.

Where We're Headed in Life

The main thing we took from 2020 was finally getting a really hard look at what we wanted out of life. Pre-2020 we would have just said we wanted to travel but there's more to it than that...we just didn't realize it.

We are both very thankful for our careers as traveling physical therapists but now we know that will not be our future. After years of schooling, we're not completely saying goodbye to therapy just yet but instead going to focus more on finding balance.

Working as therapists pays the bills and helped us meet so many amazing people but it doesn't have to be EVERYTHING. The whole "glorifying overworking" thing has finally come to an end thanks to 2020.

Before 2020 we honestly believed we had a great balance. It was work, travel, then repeat.

But the end game was a bit unclear. What was the sustainability of our plan?

In the (paraphrased) words of Luc from Emily in Paris...we should work to live, not live to work.

Blogging

Nothing like a stay at home order to make you finally prioritize blogging. We said we were part-time bloggers but part-time should be just that...part of the time.

You could say we were more occasional bloggers. We wrote a new post maybe once a month, plopped some things on social media, and called it a day.

Then we were getting frustrated when our blog just wasn't growing. But 2020 showed us if you want to run a blog then it's time to actually run a blog.

We started pinpointing areas that needed improvements and put more focus on tasks that would build our brand. But most importantly we learned we have a lot of untapped potential.

Now that 2020 is almost over we can say with certainty that we not only have a plan for the blog going forward but it's actually working. So that's cool.

2021 Here We Come

We get it, there will still be a pandemic in 2021 but there's hope. Hope that things will get better and hope for what the year will bring.

It's almost like a year of unrest was just the motivation we needed. So 2021 here we come!

• We are going to blog more and work less
• Eat healthily and exercise daily
• Travel the world while finding time for rest

Here's to 2020. You had your ups and mostly downs but we made it. Now onto bigger and better things.

So join us in making 2021 the best year yet, or not. This is still a crazy time so if you gained nothing from 2020 and you're still not ready for 2021, that's okay too.

*Editor's Note from Phil: Kelsey is so done with 2020 she wanted to skip to 2121 throughout this post. This is why we edit these posts (sometimes), so you guys don't have to wait for 100 years*

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