2021 Recap

Lifestyle
Written By Genelyn Jaye
Girl standing at Lookout Rooftop and Bar in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, MA with city skyline as the background

Downtown Boston, MA

2021 Recap: Buying a House, Our Honeymoon + Everything in Between

Dec. 31, 2021

The year we finally got the chance to celebrate our marriage with our entire guest list, we flew to Greece, bought a house, and laughed the entire year!

Spent some time reflecting on the excitement of the last year. If you didn’t know already, I enjoy this time of year. Reflection has always been a significant part in how I honor my personal growth through accountability -- it’s almost therapeutic for me! If you can relate and are just as obsessed with numbers as I am -- keep on reading!

We have yet to take our foot off the gas pedal!

2021 was a year filled with buying our very first house, plenty of travel and home improvement projects, an entire year of working fully remote in Marketing, our (postponed) big wedding celebration with loved ones, and an infinite amount of learnings and blessings!

After a year like 2020, you could say that 2021 was the year of a little “catching up” for us. We finally experienced our delayed honeymoon in Greece, and a big wedding celebration in Washington, but we also didn’t miss a beat and bought our very first house during an insane season for the housing market! You could say that 2020 might’ve slowed us down a tiny bit, but we’re still moving forward at full speed! ;)

The only thing that might’ve appeared to “slow down” in 2021 was my photography business. Although I still picked up my camera plenty of times throughout the year, I knew that I wanted to focus on a brand refresh for 2022. So, I decided to break my cycle of saying yes to every inquiry (a habit that was EXTREMELY difficult to break!), and limited myself to only a handful at a time in order to refocus some of my time and energy to some of the “behind the scenes” projects.
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I am SUPER excited to share with you all what I’ve been working on in the last year, but more to come on that in the next blog post :)
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2021 consisted of:

Did I honor my New Year’s Resolutions for 2021? (Spoiler: NOPE!)

  1. Schedule in Time for Rest

  2. Read 12 Books

  3. Reintegrate a Healthy Fitness Plan

  4. Finish Furnishing our Home

  5. Cook Together Twice a Month


Okay, okay… I didn’t cross any of these entirely off my list… but I can say that I genuinely gave them my best effort with the cards that I was dealt this year! When I wrote these goals last year, I really didn’t picture us buying an entire house and having that consume 75% of our year. Excuses, excuses… but hear me out!

I’m happy to confirm that I did schedule in rest waaaay more than I did in 2020. I fell right into a grove with work, and determined a schedule of when to shut off. I was better at this towards the second half of 2021, but I can definitely sense an improvement from the first half. With that said, I did find myself in many moments of pure exhaustion and “overbooking” myself. Although I’m looking back at a year filled with wonderful memories, I could’ve been a little gentler to myself when it comes to timing and boundaries.

I’ll bluntly say that I could’ve been more consistent with my fitness plan. I had bursts of energy to work out at Orange Theory, run at the YMCA, and even ran a 5K, but I did not read a single book cover to cover – which really breaks my heart to admit because I adore reading! I also failed at cooking with Lucas twice a month. I’m embarrassed to admit that I probably cooked less than 10 times the entire year, if that…

But the year wasn’t an entire flop! Although my original goal was to “finish furnishing our home” (aka the apartment at the time!) I completed 80% of the furnishing of our new house! That even includes big home improvement projects like painting the entire interior of the house and new flooring/carpet in addition to furnishing! The only thing I really have left to perfect is wall decor, and honestly after a year like 2021 where I was traveling so much… I call that a win ;)

At the beginning of last year, I had no idea that buying a house in 2021 was going to be on the agenda. I am so extremely proud of not only the accomplishment of becoming a homeowner before 30, but doing it all on top of all the trips we had originally planned! 2021 gave us a healthy balance of being homebodies and adventure, and for that, we are so so grateful. I can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store for us!

Annnd that's a wrap!

We spent the last couple of weeks of 2021 back in Washington with family, and it was a wild journey getting back to Boston before the New Year (click here to read about our first experience flying First Class on the economy dime!). We unpacked our bags immediately upon arrival back home in MA, but actually only had 1 week home before we packed them back up again!
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As you can imagine, 2022 is already off to an exciting start, and yes - we have yet to take our foot off the gas pedal… still! More to come on where we’re off to next, but know that our hearts are humbled and we’re entering the new year with an open mind and fresh new goals.

Sharing my 2022 goals soon! Thank you, 2021!
Gen

Genelyn Jaye
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