Rolling on the River

Facebook asked me the other day if I would like to see my “2012 Year in Review,” which highlights my top 20 moments of the year. Like a lot of things that Facebook prompts and advertises, I ignored it. Then yesterday I figured I would give good ‘ole FB a chance and see how accurate it could be.

Well, it flopped on some some things, but some others were pretty spot on. Like my trip with my family to Portugal to celebrate my parents’ 40th anniversary, my status on surfing with a pod of dolphins in Newport Beach, and my goodbye post to NYC.

Then there was the photo album of my trip to Costa Rica in February that started this whole amazing roller-coaster ride. I can’t believe how far I have come since the phone call I made to my mom 10 months ago upon landing in Miami from Costa Rica, telling her that I wanted to quit my job and move to Costa Rica. She just laughed and said “OK Kristen,” her normal response to my crazy ideas. I laughed back, but told her I was serious.

If any of y’all have not been following my posts the past couple of months (why have you not been reading?!?!), the brief version is that 10 months ago this was all a dream. Now I am living my dream. How lucky am I?

I think it is part luck, part everything happens for a reason, part planning for some wild life change decision like this, and part having the guts to do it.

Bottom line is that if I had not started doing yoga two years ago that helped prepare me for change, or had not taken that first surf lesson on a rainy overcast day out in Rockaway, or went to Spain instead of booking on-a-whim a surf trip to Costa Rica, OR if I had not been studying so diligently for my GMATs during my second Costa Rica surf trip, would I be sitting here right now reflecting on a wild, crazy, and awesome 2012?

Who knows what 2013 will bring, or if the world will end tomorrow on December 21st, but at least I know that I am LIVING this crazy plan that I concocted who knows when!

And my final reflections on 2012 are sung best by CCR or Tuna Turner, depending on which version you like:

Left a good job in the city
Workin’ for the Man every night and day
But I never lost a minute of sleepin’
Worryin’ ’bout the way things might have been

Big wheel keep on turnin’
Proud Mary keep on burnin’
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river