A Year of Change: 2020 Recap + 2021 Resolutions

At the end of 2019, I wrote a post capturing some of my favorite highlights from the year. If you missed that post, you can read more about it here. I had planned to make this an annual thing so that I would always have these posts to look back on years from now.

Given the hardships that came with 2020, I almost passed on writing this post. It’s been such a challenging year to say the least and for the longest, I felt there was absolutely nothing to celebrate.  2020 has been the year that’s caused us to slow down. It’s been the year that’s caused us to isolate and has challenged us in more ways than one. It’s also been the year that’s pushed me out of my comfort zone and challenged me to strive harder. It was the year that I saw my daughter take her first steps. The year that I celebrated one full-year of blogging. It’s the year that TJ and I purchased our first home. Through the darkness of this year, there was some light, and for that reason alone, I am grateful. Below, I share in more detail my top moments from 2020 that I will always cherish:

+ Family trip to Orlando: We flew to Florida for a quick family getaway in January. Little did we know, this would be our only vacation in 2020 due to the pandemic. It was Nori’s first time on a plane and we honestly had no idea what to expect traveling with a nine month old. It ended up being one of the greatest vacations of my life and I will forever cherish it. Looking back on these photos, I’m blown away at how much Nori has grown in just a year.

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+ Mommy + daughter photoshoot: I was terrible about taking photos of myself while pregnant. It’s honestly one of my biggest regrets. Once Nori was born, I knew I wanted to have professional photos of us. More specifically, I wanted a few photos that captured the beauty of breastfeeding. I was able to find both an amazing photographer (Judah Avenue) and makeup artist (Shannie On The Beat) who helped bring my vision to life. I still get teary-eyed looking back on these photos.

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+ Purchased our first house: When I was pregnant with Nori, I was living in a one-bedroom loft in the city. Right before she was born, Thaddeus and I moved into a two-bedroom apartment. As first time parents, we weren’t sure what to expect as far as finances go. We wanted to be responsible with our money and not rush into buying a home right away. I’m so glad with our decision as it allowed for us to to get a feel for parenting expenses, such as diapers, doctor visits, clothing, daycare, etc. After nearly a year of living in our 2-bedroom apartment, we began the hunt for a home so that Nori would have more space as she grew. We ended up finding an amazing starter home and I couldn’t be more grateful.

+ Celebrated Nori’s 1st birthday: Thaddeus and I had big plans for Nori’s first birthday. We planned to invite all of our closest family and friends and celebrate all day long. The pandemic unfortunately put a damper on those plans, causing us to celebrate alone at home. I wanted to still make the day special, so I found a way to decorate our home and host a virtual party. I know Nori won’t remember this day, but I’m glad she’ll have these photos to look back on.

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+ Nori learned to walk: One of the positives from the pandemic was us spending more time at home. We pulled Nori out of daycare and I began working from home full-time. While Nori was in daycare, my biggest fear was missing major milestones, such as her walking. I’m so grateful that I was able to experience this moment AND catch it on camera.

+ Essence feature: One of my first major milestones as a blogger was being featured in an online article by Essence Magazine. They wrote a piece for Black Breastfeeding Week highlighting 14 Black women who normalize breastfeeding. I couldn’t be more honored to be a part of such an important piece of work. You can read the full article here.

+ Watched Nori grow into the most bright, happy and hilarious Toddler (seriously, she is so dang funny. If you haven’t done so already, check out my “Laughs” highlight on Instagram):

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+ Spent more time together as a family: Both TJ’s and my job shifted to a work-from-home environment, allowing us more time together as a family.

+ Yahoo! feature: I had the pleasure of interviewing with Yahoo! Lifestyle to share more about how the holidays will look this year for my family in light of the pandemic. It was such an honor and I’m honestly still pinching myself. My hope is that I provided some level of comfort to others who may be celebrating the holidays differently this year. You can read the full article here.

+ Celebrated my first official year as a blogger: I began my blogging career in September 2019 and so much has happened within my first year. I touch on this more below, but I started this blogging journey as a creative outlet and a way to share more about my journey as a first time mom. I never would have imagined the opportunities that would present themselves, let alone in my first year of blogging. I’m so incredibly grateful and cannot wait for what’s in store for the future.

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2021 Resolutions:

If I’m being honest, this is the first year that I’m publicly sharing my New Year’s resolutions. I normally jot them down on paper, but I feel that by sharing them on my blog, I’ll be more liable to hold myself accountable. It’s definitely a challenge to set goals for the upcoming year when there’s so many unknowns. Will we still be dealing with a pandemic? Will social distancing still be a thing? Will we be able to safely travel? With that being said, I decided to focus on resolutions that are more attainable, even if 2021 is a repeat of this year. God willing, 2021 will be a better year for all of us.

Here are my 2021 resolutions, in no particular order:

+ Cook more: I am guilty of relying on carryout multiple times throughout the week. I’m so burnt out by the end of the day that cooking is the last thing on my mind. I want to spend more time planning out meals in advance so that I am able to prepare healthy dishes for my family.

+ Prioritize more time with Nori: One of the positives that came from 2020 was that I was able to spend more time at home with Nori. We pulled her out of daycare due to the pandemic and my job also shifted to working from home. Although being home with Nori has given us more time together, I still feel as though I haven’t been as “present” as I’d like to be. Between working demanding 10 hours shifts while also balancing the blogging/influencing world, I’m often glued to a computer or phone. In the upcoming year, I want to put my phone down and spend more individual time with my daughter. She’s only young once and I don’t want her memories as a child to be of me glued to electronics.

+ Prioritize my health: I’m ashamed to admit that I worked out once this year. One-single-time. Adjusting to working from home full-time with a baby wasn’t easy and left me little time to focus on fitness. Once I got into the groove of things, I spent any free-time I had blogging or shooting content. While those are things I’m passionate about, my health also needs to be a priority. Even if it’s getting outside to jog around the neighborhood, it’s better than nothing. I don’t plan to join a gym, nor do I plan to diet. I just want to find more time throughout the day to squeeze in a workout.

+ Drink more water: I’m also ashamed to admit that my water intake has plummeted. Full transparency – there are some days where I haven’t touched a glass of water. I’m so disappointed in myself and question how I became so dependent on coffee. I understand the importance of water for my overall health, skin, hair, etc. and plan to make it a priority to drink more each day. My hope is that I can work my way to drinking a gallon per day, but baby steps.. I’ll eventually get there.

+ Grow my blog: As mentioned above, I’ve only been blogging for a year. I started my blog towards the end of 2019 as a hobby. Over this last year, I’ve been presented with so many business opportunities that I’m eternally grateful for. In the upcoming year, I plan to grow my readership and prioritize weekly blog content. My hope is that I’m able to network and land campaigns with some of my favorite brands, much like I did in 2020. This comes with producing quality content and I am up for the challenge!

+ Budget: TJ and I have big plans for the future, not just in 2021, but years from now. In order to make these plans a reality, we.. (I mean “I”), have to do a better job of saving. I’m guilty of making random 2:00 am purchases on Amazon or overspending on clothes that Nori will outgrow within a few months. I want to make more intentional purchases in the upcoming year by focusing on “needs” vs. “wants”. I plan to create a budgeting template to hold myself accountable. If there’s any interest in this, I will share my template along with how I plan to use it in a future blog post.

+ Network with other bloggers: This is something that I’m passionate about, but haven’t dedicated enough time to. I’m so grateful to have come across the new social media app, Clubhouse. It has allowed me to connect with other creators and bloggers with similar niches. I plan to utilize this app more in 2021.. and maybe, (heavy on the maybe), host/moderate a room. By the way – if you are on Clubhouse, feel free to add me, I’d love to connect! My name on there is: Brooke Angelique.

+ Live more in the moment: It’s so easy to get caught up in the comparison game and feeling down on yourself and your work. If there’s one thing 2020 has taught me, it’s that comparison is the thief of joy. What’s meant for you will be. Having this mindset has allowed me to just live and enjoy the moment rather than worrying about keeping up with others. I still have some work to do in this area, but hope to really embrace it in 2021.

+ Keep the photos in my phone organized: This is such a small task, but one of the hardest ones for me. I’m guilty of taking 64+ photos and only liking two of them, but keeping ALL of them on my phone. I currently have 17,747 photos in my camera roll which has taken up a lot of memory. In fact, I’m constantly deleting apps in order to free up more space (sorry Amazon, Starbucks, and Target). I recently saw a blogger share how each Sunday, she goes through her camera roll and deletes any unnecessary photos that were taken that week. This keeps the storage on her phone low and allows her to have a photo album that’s clutter free. I plan to spend some time before the new year going through the 17k+ photos on my phone and then maintaining my album each Sunday.

I think that’s everything for now. Like I said, I wanted to give myself small goals that are more attainable given the uncertainty of next year. I challenge each of you to take some time to reflect on this past year and the positives that came from it and find ways to make next year a greater one.

See you all in 2021!

Xo,

Brooke