And just like that folks, 2024 is in our rearview mirrors. I don’t know about you, but THANK GOD. While 2024 had its peaks, it was definitely filled with valleys for me. I took some time over the weekend to reflect on all of the lessons learned, the struggle, the unbelievably hard season I had found myself in for most of the year, and thought about what I want 2025 to look like. I think we need to grieve those hard times and process the traumatic events, no matter how small they might have been. I also think we need to acknowledge the hard stuff because it’s how we grow, it’s how we learn, it’s how we decide to do things differently.

I also took time to acknowledge the really incredible stuff that happened this year and all of the change that happened (whether I liked it in the moment or not, ha!). If some of those hard things hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have been pushed to a new level of creativity or pushed outside of my comfy comfort zone. And when I say hard things, I mean the HARDEST stuff to date in my life happened in 2024. There are things that will carry over into 2025, but the fresh start for me was taking the leap of faith and attempting to do something radically different and new.

I want to be honest, I’m an absolute mess. I am still struggling with a lot of those areas of my life where I feel like I am not good enough, my coping skills SUCK (not always), my resiliency falters, and I often find myself just plain stuck in the negative feedback cycle. When I started to come up with the idea for Fresh Start 302, it was initially supposed to just be about meal prep to help supplement my lack of income (this will be another post at some point). But I kept feeling this tug to do more with it. Sure, meal prep but what other gifts do I have that I want, that I need, to give away? In my first post I talked about how our lived experiences can mean a lot to someone else. Perhaps they are walking in something similar, perhaps they share a struggle that you have, perhaps they feel completely alone and isolated just like you did.

My goal this year is to expand this brand, expand this community, engage in meaningful conversation, and grow myself in ways that might be uncomfortable but necessary. What is your fresh start? What did you find when you reflected over the last year? Did you find it hard to see the positives? Or was your year filled with good things!? Were there struggles you would like to work through moving into the new year? Next week, I am going to talk more about the struggles and how poorly I coped with it, LOL. I know I am not alone so if you feel led to share, please comment below. We are on this walk together and I am so grateful you are here!

Love, Katie