The Aughts

Being New Years Eve and all I thought this would be a fun time to re-cap and reflect on all the amazing places I have been and things I have been so amazingly lucky to experience:

-Ride my bike across the country from Portsmouth, NH to Vancouver, Canada. Ride through states I only hoped of ever knowing - Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, Washington... just to name a few.
-Help build 9 houses and meet the gracious families that will live in them.
-Experience monumental love and support from all my friends.
-Make all sorts of new wonderful friends.
-Find a new sense of self-worth and efficacy.
-Road trip from Vancouver to Portland, OR.
-Spend time with my wonderful friends in Portland.
-Have a self supported bicycle adventure from Portland to San Francisco with some of the most amazing people I have ever met.
-Converse with some truly incredible, inspiring characters all over the country.
-Take a train across the middle of the country from San Francisco to Iowa.
-Explore Ames, IA with one of my best friends.
-Catch up with my sister and my family more so than I think I ever have.
-Go on my first backpacking trip.
-Get a job giving bike tours in Alaska starting May 2010 with one of my best friends.

I am not sure what 2010 will offer me but I have high hopes that it has the chance to be just as wonderfully exciting and inspiring as this year was. To all my friends, I love you more than I could ever say. You have taught me to love life and not look back, to strap on a bicycle helmet and pedal on, to brush the grudge off your shoulders and put a smile on your face, to laugh at life's discomforts, to sing instead of cry, and to continue to find the wonderful little moments that exist in this world of struggle and confusion. Thank you. <3