Where did we leave off? Oh yeah– NYC.

I’m still slap-happy and broke after my NYC trip, but life didn’t slow down. I met a friend in Puerto Vallarta for my first trip to Mexico/Margaritaville. I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and friends, and even had a visitor! My dear friend Zach, who I met in OR, is living in Illinois, and made the 5 hour trek to spend some time in Des Moines. Good times were had. After that I made some progress on getting some work in Des Moines, and did a massive room cleaning session — to include getting caught up on 2 seasons of Orange is the New Black. I’m sort of just floating out here having fun as I cross my fingers and row towards what looks like an island in the distance.

Just when I thought I was doomed to live the rest of my life throwing away hoarded tchotchkes of my youth, the universe gave me a little gift. I had an article published on Cosmopolitan.com!

I’m guessing if you are reading this, then you are probably my Facebook friend and I already shoved this down your throat. (Sorry about being crazy excited…. nope, actually. Not sorry.) If not, you can read it here .

What does this mean? How did this happen? Who did I bribe?

What it means? Just that my article was circulated online for all Cosmopolitan.com readers to see and I even got a little lunch money for my work. It happened because I found out about a way to freelance through Hearst while I was at the Fun Fearless Life conference a few weeks ago. I applied with a few writing samples and they accepted my material! I then worked off of a list of desired prompts and found the one that was most fitting: “I was briefly famous”. I wrote the piece, submitted my work, and BOOM. I saw my name on my favorite publication’s website. It doesn’t mean that I officially write for Cosmo or that I’ve got a full blown career going, but it did give me a much-needed confidence boost. It is a baby step, with a big ol’ baby.

Cheers! And thanks! To you, the reader. For reading my diary and keeping me motivated all the way to Cosmo.  ❤

-C