My 20’s: 10 Defining Moments

Happy Saturday! Today is February 20, and officially marks the beginning of the last month of my 20’s! Rather than dreading my 30’s, I am really excited about a new decade and the chance to celebrate the life that I have had so far. I thought it would be fun to share 10 defining moments from my 20’s with you to kick off the last month of this crazy decade 🙂

1) January 2001– I moved to Ireland to study abroad. Those were the days before I had a digital camera, and I don’t have any scanned photos. Moving away from my family for some 7 months, having to find my own apartment, learning a different currency and cultural way of life was a truly defining step in becoming who I am today.

2) March 2001 – Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and my 21st birthday in Ireland. Not only did I have the friends and roommates I lived with in Ireland, but several friends from America also came over for these occasions making March 2002 pretty much a time of non stop fun and entertaining. I still managed to do well in school too 😉

3) March 2002– I lost my father.

4) May 2002 – I graduated from college into a post 9/11 economy without a clue of what I wanted to do with my life. I proceeded to substitute teach for a few weeks, then spent the summer unemployed. This was the last time I took longer than 2 weeks off of working, and I wish I had savored this time rather than spending it panicked about my future.

5) September 2002– I got my first job in Boston and found my first grown up apartment, living alone for the first time in my life. It was a tiny studio in Allston in a pretty gross, slightly scary building. But I found it by myself, I paid for it by myself, and I was pretty pleased with myself.

6) August 2003– Love at first sight, I saw my husband for the first time. He was temping at Brigham and Women’s, and I was still working there, my first job out of college. We both hated the jobs, but we had them for a reason. We haven’t been apart since.

7) January 2005– We bought our first condo. It has been accompanied by MANY headaches throughout the years, but we have made great friends with awesome neighbors, made a completely new neighborhood our home, and for the most part have been very happy here!

8) August 18, 2006– We got married! Surrounded by family and friends, we had the most perfect summer evening for a New England lobster bake and sail around Boston Harbor.

9) I became an auntie. . . 8 times! We have 6 nieces and 2  nephews, 5 in MA, 1 in NJ, and 2 in Italy. They range in age from 1.5 years old to 9. I never could have imagined having such a big and fun family! I also became a godmother in October 2007 🙂

10) June 2009 I started blogging. Seems like such a small thing, but over the past few months as I have made new friends and contacts, I have started to shape in my head a career path (or paths) that incorporate all of the things that I love in my personal life. It feels amazing to enter a new decade with clearer goals and a better idea of what I want to do “when I grow up”.

These are just a few of the biggest moments of the decade. Through my 20’s as through the other decades of my life, I have enjoyed the love and support of my mom and sister, have made many great new, lifelong friends, traveled on dozens of work and vacation trips around the country and outside the US, run 3 marathons and am training for a 4th, and have been able to work on a variety of causes that mean a lot to me.

Its been a great decade, and I can not wait to see what the next one brings. In the meantime, I get to enjoy a year full of birthday celebrations for my friends!

What are some of the more defining moments of your last decade?

I am excited to announce that I am over 1/3 of the way to my fundraising goal for my ALLY Foundation raffle! Many thanks to so many people from the blog world who have donated. Just a reminder of the prizes:

$100 gift card to Williams Sonoma

A mixed case of wine from Wine Cellar of Stoneham

A custom granola blend from me & goji

One month membership to all Healthworks Fitness Centers

A private tour and tasting for 10 at Westport Rivers winery

How to enter:

Visit http://firstgiving.com/meghanmalloyteamally

Each $10 donation counts as one entry for the above raffle.

Thanks a million to Wine Cellar of Stoneham, me & goji, Healthworks Fitness Centers, and Westport Rivers Winery for their generous prize donations!