My Year In Review — Thanks for Following Along This Year!

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Happy New Year everyone!

Thank you so much for following along for the first year of my newsletter. One of my favorite parts of this project is seeing all of your responses to each newsletters. It has been so much fun connecting with you all so frequently and I can’t wait to share even more in the new year. I love New Years because it’s always such a great time to reflect on how much you’ve accomplished and grown throughout the year. One thing I’ve differently appreciated the most this year is the importance of taking time to yourself. I’ve written about this a few times this year, but I think everyone (including myself) still needs to remind ourselves to take a mental health moment and never apologize for it. Over the last year I’ve been writing in two different journals; one for recording my daily gratitudes and one for just writing out everything I’m feeling. The good, the bad, it’s all in there as a release for everything I’m feeling at the moment. This has reminded me to always ask myself and those around me: “what are you doing to check-in with yourself?” I now have a year’s worth of daily gratitudes to look back on and remind myself of all the big and small moments I may have forgotten along the way.One of my biggest accomplishments this year was opening up about my IVF treatments. Anyone who’s been through this process knows how incredibly hard it is to open up to others—let alone the entire world! I want to thank you all for being so receptive and for your continued support. It was SO heartwarming and humbling to see so many others open up about their own treatments in the comments and across other platforms. It really reminded me that instead of feeling ashamed, we need to give ourselves more love. It freaking sucks, because it can seem like it’s such a lonely thing. However, I’m thankful to be a part of this strong community of women. It can still be hard, but I’m glad that more and more women are beginning to open up and start to feel less alone. This reminds me how thankful I am for all my communities. From my work fam and wider NFL and NHL communities, to my WEAR by EA team and of course real family, I’m so happy to be surrounded by such badass people that truly inspire me every day. Earlier this year, I started to see the loss of communities as we struggled to find a bit of normalcy, but all it took were a few phone calls and some much-needed drinks with friends to remind me of my support system. If you’re struggling at the end of the year, maybe it’s time to get back to talking to family and building your support system back up. A great New Years Resolution is to try and pick up the phone and call or even send a quick text to someone you haven’t talked to in a while. You never know who might be struggling too. What are some of your biggest reflections from 2021? Do any of you have a gratitude journal you like reading at the end of the year as well? What are some of your New Year Resolutions? What have been some of your favorite newsletters of mine that you’ve read this year? Let me know in the comments as well!

Thank you so much for reading and Happy New Year!

Talk to you in 2022,

Erin