Fly, take up space and trust your instincts.

Looking back on 2018 I can say that it was a whirlwind year full of many emotions, growth and reconditioning myself to trust my internal voice.

In life, we are so often taught the way that things should be: be a good student, excel academically, go to college, get a good job, pay your taxes, work hard, rinse, repeat, and blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAH! Honestly, I did that. To the freaking letter.

Growing up I wanted to be the person my friends could depend on and my nieces and nephews could look up to. It has only been the last couple of years that I have even allowed my closest friends to see that the journey hasn’t been easy. In finally being comfortable with not being perfect, I still have discussions with friends to which they respond “I never knew you went/were going through that.”

Life is hard–for everyone. But it is so much harder when you feel that you have to go through it alone. In doing so, you isolate yourself from those who truly love you and you force yourself to suffer in silence.

In 2018 I spent a lot of time rebuilding relationships that I had not properly invested in for a while. In many ways, it was truly healing, therapeutic and ultimately led me back to me.

In 2013, fresh out of graduate school, in Philadelphia, PA, I accepted a job and moved literally across the world to Pohang, South Korea. Upon returning to the USA I moved to Los Angeles, CA, then to Washington, DC. All of this is to say that I haven’t lived around my friends and/or family since graduating from undergrad. Of course, I made more new and amazing friends along the way and kept in touch with my old ones, but there is something very unique about hanging with people who knew you “way back when”. There is certain chemistry, comfort and knowingness there that never has to be spoken. So, in 2017 I visited my friends more, in 2018 I visited my family more, and in 2019 I’m rediscovering all of me more.

In 2019 I am packing up my life and moving abroad, with the goal of returning completely fluent in Spanish. I have loved the Spanish language since I was a young child growing up near Little Village in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five languages that I would like to master before I die–Arabic, Korean, and American Sign Language are the other three, as English is my native tongue that one is pretty much a given.

More details of this journey will be coming as the date approaches, but I am super excited to not only fully learn a language and experience living in a new culture, but to work on writing my novels, updating my blog, building my youtube, being a conduit for cultural exchange, and uncovering all of who I desire to be as I strive for complete alignment heading into this next chapter of my life.

With that in mind, 2019 will not only see my life change but also the blog.

Though I enjoy and love music, these posts will become limited to my Instagram page.

Book reviews bring me joy because books are life, but moving forward those will primarily be on my Youtube channel.

The actual blog site will be dedicated to life experiences, growth, evolution and reflections, love lessons, and travel–which will also be on Youtube.

I hope to see all of you here, on the road, and throughout the journey, as we all navigate this thing called life.

Until next time, remember to give time time and have the best day of your life–on purpose!
– Ms. Malcolm Hughes