By the time you read this column, I will officially be 29 years old.
Last year I talked about 28 lessons in 28 years, and while I’m sure I can come up with another 29 lessons, I thought I’d prefer to reflect on the past year and mention the 29 best moments for me in the past year. I feel so lucky to be able to recall 29 moments, and that I’m in a community I love that got to participate in some of those moments. So in no particular order:

1) Getting to meet my sweet new niece, Mina. I’m an only child, so having friends and cousins that allow me to be an auntie to their children means a lot, and Mina is my very first niece.
2) Similarly, getting to find out that Mina is a girl. My cousin asked me if I could make her a gender reveal treat, so I made her little Mickey Mouse cupcakes with pink frosting in the middle. Being the first to know she was having a little girl felt very special, and knowing she was about to experience something as special as having a daughter was so exciting.
3) Back in April, I got to volunteer as a community member and a Brandon Groveland Youth Assistance board member for Challenge Day at Brandon High School. As much as Challenge Day can be difficult, it is the most rewarding experience to be able to help students with the toughest challenges they’ve ever faced and show them how they’re not alone.
4) On that same day, we honored many students with our annual BGYA Youth Recognition Awards. Seeing all of the good the kids do for their community is amazing.
5) Publishing my fifth book. This was just this past week, and I’m very excited about it. I even drew the cover art myself.
6) Shop with a Hero. Every year I attend the Shop with a Hero event to get photos of area kids shopping with our local fire and police personnel, and every year I end up helping add up costs, running things to and from shelves, and spending time with community members all in honor of the holidays. I love it.
7) Interviewing June Ciampa, the oldest living Golden Girl, and fourth ever in the history of Purdue. There are just some people that I could hear their whole life story, and she’s one of them.
8) Having almost all of my family together for my grandmother’s 80th birthday. Here’s to 80 more, Grandma Rose.
9) Giving the induction speech for Bob McArthur’s induction into the Brandon Distinguished Alumni wall of fame. He deserved every word.
10) Hosting a self-publishing workshop at the Brandon Library with local author Jordan Schwartz. I can’t wait to do it again in March.
11) The BGYA annual sponsor breakfast. Every year, dozens of community leaders attend our sponsor breakfast where we thank the community organizations for all of their support. It’s a day like no other, where everyone is conversing and laughing and being a true community. I love seeing it every year.
12) I learned how to crochet stuffed animals this year, and I made some for Mina’s baby shower and for my best friend Jackie’s baby shower this past month. I made Jackie’s new baby boy (due next year) a Highland Cow, something I didn’t know I was capable of.
13) Giving a speech and presenting the Citizen of the Year award at Septemberfest to VFW commander Dennis Hoffman.
14) When I sent a message in our friends group chat saying “Guess whose anxiety is finally medicated” and they all asked what medication I was on and I laughed for a very, very long time before telling them it was my dog, Cosmo, that got put on medication and not me. I still laugh about that.
15) Interviewing Maria Launiger, who saved the life of a friend of hers when he suffered a cardiac episode. She was a wonderful interview, and a wonderful person.
16) Presenting at Career Day at Oakwood Elementary. It’s so fun to teach kids about different careers and see what they are interested in.
17) Getting my ADHD diagnosis. That sounds like a bad thing, but it’s amazing how much easier I can do everything now that I’m working with my brain instead of against it.
18) Interviewing Peyton Newell, who designed some of the wetsuits for the Paris Olympics worn by Olympic surfers.
19) Seeing Wicked in theaters. I’m a huge musical theater fan, and I saw Wicked at the Detroit Opera House on a field trip back in high school, and seeing it on screen was like seeing the musical for the first time again. It was wonderful.
20) Publishing my fourth book back in late December.
21) Finding out my best friend Jackie was having another baby. I can’t wait to meet him.
22) Seeing Alan Jackson at his last concert in Michigan. My husband and I went to Grand Rapids to see him for the first time before he stops touring, due to his health issues. It was an incredible show.
23) Selling books at Abigail’s Pride. It was my single best sales day this year, and it was great fun to attend.
24) I trained the reactivity to other dogs out of my dog. This took one day, which is much shorter than I expected. I offered him a treat as a distraction when another dog barked at him, and now any time something makes a noise when we’re on a walk, instead of barking and trying to look tough, he tries to stick his big block head in my coat pocket. I’m almost mad at how easy it was.
25) Getting chosen to receive an advanced reader copy of a book from one of my favorite authors.
26) At my cousin’s wedding when her little six-year-old daughter gave me the sweetest, biggest hug goodbye, looked up at me and asked, “Why aren’t you tan?” I am, admittedly, very pale, and her bluntness still makes me laugh months later.
27) When my brother-in-law got Kyle and I a record player last Christmas. I didn’t know how much I would love it then, but Kyle and I sit in our basement and listen to a record together at least once a week while we play board games.
28) Treats and Trails at the Brandon Township Community Park. BGYA handed out candy in October, and I brought my calmer dog, Wanda, along (dressed as Flounder from The Little Mermaid). The kids loved her, and one mom approached my husband and I and thanked us because her son had been bitten by a dog and was trying to overcome a fear of dogs, and Wanda helped.
29) Hearing the sound my nephew, Lincoln, makes at animals for the first time. He makes Chewbacca noises at them, and it’s both hilarious and adorable.
I feel incredibly lucky to be able to recall 29 moments that I experienced joy, pride, laughter, love and community in this past year, and I look forward to turning 30 next year and seeing how many wonderful things this year has to come.