New Year

Just like that 2022 has come to and end and we welcome 2023 with open arms. 2022 was a year of challenges and change. Challenges and change are good. Elisabeth and I seem to seek them out.

Reflecting back on the 2022, there was a lot of good and bad. Really, there has been a strange collective wrestling match of good and bad that has occurred since 2020.


When the pandemic hit, many peoples’ lives were turned upside down. Our lives certainly changed, but everyone was having change. Fortunately, Elisabeth and I came out of 2020 in reasonably good condition.


2021 was largely the same. Many of us spent the year restrained by Covid, but we did see light at the end of the tunnel as many of us received vaccines and life was showing glimpses of normalcy. Again, Elisabeth and I came through in reasonably good condition.


We learned a lot and improved on many things in these two years. Just to list a few in no particular order:


Teamwork and understanding for each other
Leadership amongst disruption
Empathy for those secluded
Risk management
Importance of regular exercise for mental health
The bonds animals can make
Trust (in so many ways)
Importance of human connection


The list is long. Those are just a few.


While many people were having the worst years of their lives in 2020 and 2021, we kept it together fairly well. Having previously lived in far away places with no family or friends nearby gave us a leg up. Some might argue that being two middle children helped us approach the situation logically. Having many privileges certainly helped, too. Naturally, there comes guilt with having success while other’s are having such difficulty. From the beginning of 2020, we gave our time and resources as we could which helped us feel as if we were doing our part for our community.


In 2022 we all began to see more hope as we were coming out of the pandemic. Many people were still getting sick, but with lesser complications. Good things were coming in 2022.


I’m happy to say that my year began wonderfully. Some highlights early in 2022 were:


Taking high school athletes to the New England Championship in Boston (I am very proud of these kids)
Exploring new areas in midcoast Maine
Practicing snowshoeing
Spending a few days with my family in Vermont
Visiting Quebec with Elisabeth for Easter
Taking Mollie Mae (dog) to Boston


The first third of the year went off with few hiccups.


April of 2022 brought us surprises as Elisabeth’s work slowed at the CDC as the pandemic lessened. My job at The Body Architect came to an abrupt end which left around 200 people without a “home”. This brought me and many others pain.


May was filled with a wonderful graduation celebration for Elisabeth earning her second Master’s degree. I began a job at The Form Lab (which I consider to be the best gym in Portland, Maine). Many Body Architect members joined and found a new “home”.


While it was a short time that we were without a gym, the pain was sharp and surreal. I still feel badly for the members, especially those who never found a new “home” at another gym in Portland.


Roe v. Wade was overturned. A cloud came over Portland as the clocks turned back to an unimaginable time.


The summer continued on and we hiked weekly, camped regularly, visited Vermont and Montreal, celebrated often, deepened friendships, said goodbye to our first exchange student, welcomed our second exchange student, and made big life decisions.


The biggest decision we made that summer was to leave Portland- something we knew we would do eventually. We value travel and change highly. While Portland was a lovely home full of family and friends, we could not live with ourselves if we had too many “what ifs?” In life.


We chose to move to Chicago for more work and education opportunities. I intended to enroll in a massage therapy program but was underwhelmed with all of my tours. Unfortunately, at the same time the economy began to tighten and hiring in many industries slowed.


Elisabeth and I landed in Chicago, found a great apartment and have steadily been making friends and finding new volunteer opportunities. Work is slower than we would like. We thrive on staying busy. I’ve taken a job at a gym that I’m very excited about, mostly teaching group classes until personal training fills up more of my schedule. It’s slow, but a normal process. Elisabeth is in the very late stages of interviews for a couple of exciting roles.


Not having full work schedule has affected us both more than we had expected. Life moves more slowly. Confidence is questioned. Regret becomes a thought. Generally speaking, everything “tightens”.


We can say that 2022 was not our best of the last three years… ironically. While most others are starting to look-up after the pandemic, we have the frustrating temporary feeling of sliding backward. We know it is not forever and this is a “one step back, two forward” kind of thing, but patience is difficult.


It’s necessary to recognize that much good has come of this. Mollie Mae is getting long walks. We’re volunteering and feeling connected in our community more than ever. Regular visits with my cousins across town bring us joy. We got to spend Christmas with my family. Chicago is a sprawling, diverse, colorful, and ever enchanting city.


We have a lot to be thankful for.


We have a lot of challenges to be thankful for.


We value the challenges and all that we learn from them.


2022 was not our greatest year, but I know that a lot of great things happened. I also know that 2022 was a year to set us up for an amazing 2023. It’s important to be thankful for the changes that we can make. Inherently, with change there will be an adaptation phase that often sets up for an exponential phase of growth.


As we move into 2023, we don’t dwell on the negative parts of 2022. Instead, we listen to them, learn from them, and find our way to leverage them for success in the next year.


Happy New Year, everyone.