To New Beginnings + To Opening New Doors

There is something I love about January… it certainly isn’t the sub-zero Chicago temperatures or the short daytime hours. What I love about January is that it’s an opportunity for change and new beginnings. And although that sounds quite cliché, it’s the truth; because it is the ideal time of year where you can start afresh.

For me, 2024 was a year of many changes: some necessary and others tougher to swallow, one particularly painful, and ones that were challenging yet unbelievably gratifying. The easy & the tough changes was just getting more comfortable with my household’s altered dynamics… no longer do I have 3 little kiddos, or even 3 teenagers under my roof. Rather these days, I have an “adult teenager” who spends much more time away from the house than actually in it. That has meant rephrasing our relationship into accepting that he’s now an adult, and that I’m not as physically needed as I once was. Yet it has also meant that the things that I am needed for are much more vital; and that’s been a great realization. So while I have more time for myself in the literal sense of the word, my mental space is occupied differently. 2024 meant that I have a college graduate; and whilst I don’t feel old enough for that, there’s a certain peace that comes along with knowing that I’ve given her the best gift I could possibly give her… an education. However the tough part is also accepting my household’s changing dynamics… 2024 was the last year where my husband and I have a child at home; this May, my son will graduate high school. After 39 years in our town’s (amazing) school system, my husband and I will be “graduating” and becoming empty-nesters. This realization is both tough and exciting: tough because there will forever be a “new normal” for the two of us, but exciting because it will be “our time” to live more spontaneously than we’ve been able to do for the past 23+ years.

2024 was painful because I lost a very dear friend. My feisty and larger-than-life friend was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer on January 1, 2024 and he died on December 16th. After Tim’s diagnosis, our close group of friends rallied and spent the month of January LIVING with Tim… we had dinners, parties, spent a lot of quality time together. This awful reality took ahold of everyone in a unique way; and everyone processed the news in a distantly individual manner. Looking back at the year, I can honestly say that we spent as much quality time with Tim (and each other) as possible. We made so many beautiful memories that unfortunately, have to last a lifetime. Tim was the most loyal, generous, and hard-working person I’ve ever had the pleasure of calling my friend. He was far from perfect; but I considered him my older brother in many special ways. This loss will stay with me throughout my lifetime; and while I am ready to turn the page on 2024… it’s also the last year that Tim was a part of and that’s a tough pill to swallow.

And 2024 was the year that I went completely “outside the box” and founded Trove. If you would have asked me a year ago, what I know about starting a company, the answer would have resoundingly been, “absolutely nothing.” But when I think of how far I’ve come, and how much I learned- both about entrepreneurship, business, and myself- this part year, I am so proud. I knew nothing about the importance of, for example, having an established social media presence or SEO or designing a website. Trust me, I am far from being an expert today, but I know so much more than I did 12 months ago. I think there’s a lot of truth in the quote,“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks;” however this old dog learned many new tricks this year. Maybe it was turning the big 5-0 that brought on a sense of urgency? Perhaps it was knowing that I owed it to myself to start something I was passionate about? Or maybe it was in part because I am going to be an empty nester and it was time? Conceivably, I felt as though the world was missing something? At the end of the day, the why doesn’t really matter.

Changes are hard and messy and complicated; but without changes, we grow stagnant. So here’s to beginnings and to opening new doors. Cheers to 2025 being a year that challenges and motivates us all, and calls for moments of pause along the way.