2014, it's been a blast

It’s the last day of the year and, as always, I’m hit with the urge to look back on the year that was and celebrate the triumphs and challenges of the past 12 months.

Eight months since my last blog post here and I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. I think that’s a symptom of growing up really – we have so many things on our plate that it’s not always easy to stop and savour the present. The days rush by at lightening speed and already we are about to pop the champagne on a brand new year. It’s crazy.

At first I thought I hadn’t done too much to speak of this year, but once I started thinking about it I realised that 2014 has been one of the best to date. There has been struggle, but through it all I’ve come out feeling inspired and proud of what I have achieved in that short space of time.

The first big one was buying a house. When we moved back to Perth from Sydney last year, one of our goals was to purchase our own place. It was made more complicated by the fact that we had owned property before, so with stamp duty we were up for a bigger deposit. We scrimped and saved, even moving back in with my parents, and by mid-March we were so thankful to be standing in a villa we could call our own. What followed was months of painting, renovations and interior decorating as we worked to transform our home into the vision I had in my mind. There’s still much to be done, but I learn plenty along the way about project management, using power tools and why you should always keep a spare grand up your sleeve in case your hot water system needs to be replaced. Ha.

This year was also a big one career-wise, as, after several years of writing for The West, I finally got the full time position I always dreamt of. I feel like training for this job will never be over, but to call myself an entertainment journalist is something that 15-year-old Jessie would be pretty chuffed about (because it really matters what your teen self would think!). I’ve met some of my biggest idols this year and interviewed anyone from Chris Hemsworth to Baz Luhrmann and 5 Seconds of Summer. Sometimes I feel like I might crumble under the stress that comes with working on a daily newspaper but for the most part I just feel pretty gosh darn lucky.

Then there are the smaller things, like visiting Bali twice, seeing some beloved friends in Sydney, celebrating Marc’s and my second wedding anniversary, forming a quiz team, going strawberry picking, planting a veggie patch, finally getting my wisdom teeth out, camping in Margaret River, hiking in Serpentine, being totally surprised with Miley Cyrus’ amazing tour and booking the trip of a lifetime to the US.

2014, you’ve been good to me. Let’s hope 2015 is even better.