One Day In December: Take the good with the bad

This time of year generally makes us think, doesn’t it? We begin in November with a quest to be grateful and then comes December when the true reflection begins. It’s easy to point out the bad in our lives, the difficult aspects, the moments where we don’t feel like we live up to those around us, but so seemingly difficult to acknowledge the good. What’s funny really is that much of the bad makes the good happen, without the bad, we may not ever have had the good to begin with. Thus, if we really look at the series of events as a whole instead of as entirely separate, the bad really could be considered good.

Let me explain and give a little back story on how this blog began. In 2009, Kyle and I were engaged and living in Iowa. He was about to graduate as a doctor of chiropractic. Our life was in limbo but an exciting limbo. We’d be moving back to Arizona, our home, to really start our lives. However we had NO idea what that meant or what the future held for us. After a life of being students, we were finally about to grow up. Our plan was to move in with Kyle’s parents temporarily until we figured out where we wanted to live and work and what we would do next. I laugh when I look back and remember that I told my friends we’d be there two months tops. We didn’t work for several months, Kyle interviewed at various places and after working a terrible job for the past few years while Kyle was in school, I got to relax knowing I wouldn’t even start looking until he found something suitable for him.

While Kyle didn’t know exactly what he would be doing, he had a plan. He was going to be a chiropractor and it was just a matter of finding the right fit. I had no plans. I graduated with a degree in psychology with no plans to continue the degree or even work in the field. At age 25, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. However all the free time was what lead me to start a blog and gave me the time to figure how what a blog was, how Twitter worked, and gave me the first glimpse at something I really loved; writing.

After a series of interviews and even offers that just didn’t feel right we made a huge decision. Kyle’s long term goal was to have his own practice and the plan would be for me to work in the office to help in the early stages.  Instead of working incredibly hard, for little money, for someone else to benefit, we decided to jump over the baby steps and fly right into owning our own practice. It was both incredibly exciting and scary. We didn’t buy an established practice, we started from scratch with no patients and only the basic essentials. No paid job meant we’d stay living with Kyle’s parents.

Fast forward a year and a half, we were married, the clinic was growing slowly but surely, my blog had grown from a personal journal to a source of inspiration for strangers, and we were still living with Kyle’s parents. As you might imagine it wasn’t always ideal but without it we wouldn’t be here. Kyle wouldn’t be fulfilling his dreams and I may have never figured out what mine were. My blog lead to a free lance writing job, a paid free lance writing job. And the best part, I finally had a passion. I was getting paid to do something I loved, came easy to me, and never felt like a chore. People ask me all the time if I am going to become a wedding planner. It seems many bride bloggers have taken that path, I laugh, knowing I am not cut out for that job. I just want to write… about weddings, charity, and now food.

We’ve had ups and downs. We are on an extremely tight budget meaning we have to forego many things our friends with conventional jobs are doing. But we are happy. At age 27, we both know what we love, we get to do it every day, and it can only go up from here. We don’t cringe at the thought of going to work, we have no bosses to complain about, and all the work we put in equals direct rewards for ourselves. Life isn’t always perfect, situations don’t always play out how you planned, but I think if we start to find the good in the bad, we will realize how truly grateful we should be, all year round.

For the record, we no longer live with Kyle’s parents. But we did for two years, including our first year of marriage. All four of our lives changed immensely in that time period and I think we were all right where we needed to be for the time we were there. Kyle and I continue to be grateful for the way our path played out and for where it continues to go in the future. We are grateful for the struggles, the success, the stress, and even the pain because without it we wouldn’t be where we are today and this place is right where we want to be.

Merry Christmas to you all! Take a moment to read Krissy‘s post from yesterday and Orly’s post for tomorrow. Catch up on all the posts here.