Time Well Wasted: 2021 Recap

Well, folks. 2021 is com­ing to an end and 2022 is fast upon us. Which means it’s time for a recap post! 

I wish I could say I did a lot of inter­est­ing and fun things this year. With the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic among us, fun and inter­est­ing things were few and far between. 

The year start­ed out well.  My part­ner and I cel­e­brat­ed our first anniver­sary. Nabis­co came out with gluten-free Ore­os at long last! I got to vis­it my fam­i­ly home to help my par­ent recov­er from an injury. My part­ner and I looked at a bunch of hous­es, made an offer on a few and had one accept­ed! Final­ly, some sta­bil­i­ty for me. 

We moved in togeth­er and things were going well. We were hav­ing fun being able to see each oth­er all the time, get­ting to show the house off to fam­i­ly and friends, and mak­ing the house our home. I was able to go see some Car­di­nals games in the brief lull of Covid cas­es ear­ly in the sum­mer. We got our Covid vac­cines and lat­er in the year, our boost­er shots. I was able to go to a quilt retreat with my rel­a­tives and work on oth­er hob­bies in the year like stained glass and count­ed cross stitch. I attend­ed EconoMe and was able to see inter­net friends in real life again!

Some­where along the way, it all went side­ways. Covid cas­es came roar­ing back which meant few activ­i­ties out­side the house. Work kicked into high gear as we scram­bled to order sup­plies and ready every­one for the return to the build­ing. I was forced to go back into the office a few days a week. Things with my part­ner fal­tered and then fell apart com­plete­ly. We end­ed up not mak­ing it to our sec­ond anniversary. 

So, once again, I pack up my life and move on. I think we will both be bet­ter off in the long run and I wish him noth­ing but the best. I believe every­one deserves to be with a part­ner that adds to their life. Covid both helped and hin­dered our relationship. 

I’m a lot sad we could­n’t make it work and that I’ll be start­ing over again at the age of 31. But now that I no longer want to have bio­log­i­cal chil­dren of my own (thanks to my ADHD and to cli­mate change), I find I no longer feel the pres­sure of a clock to have a part­ner and cre­ate a fam­i­ly. It is incred­i­bly freeing. 

The title of this post is “Time Well Wast­ed” which is a song by Brad Pais­ley. Nei­ther of us wast­ed the oth­er’s time as it’s a glob­al pani­ni. It’s quite hard to date in a pan­dem­ic, so if we had bro­ken up ear­li­er chances are high nei­ther of us would’ve gone on to date oth­ers right away. We had a good time togeth­er even if we did­n’t work out as a couple. 

“But what about that big, awe­some house you bought togeth­er!?” Well, when we bought the house we signed an agree­ment that in the event of a breakup, he could buy me out, I could buy him out, or we could sell and split the prof­it based on how much we both had put in. I do not want to buy him out (nor do I have the cash) so he is going to be buy­ing me out either through a refi­nance or a loan assump­tion. If every­thing goes as planned, that means I will have about $10,000 com­ing my way at the very least, which will be nice to have. 

This time, I don’t need to move to anoth­er state and/or find a job. I’m stay­ing in St Louis at my job, so I will be mov­ing into a sweet bach­e­lorette con­do in down­town St Louis. This will elim­i­nate my com­mute and put me clos­er to all the fun things St Louis has to offer! I’m very excit­ed to be back in an area that is walk­a­ble and not so car depen­dent. 2022 will be a great year to get in touch with myself again and fig­ure out what I want my life to look like. Should Covid actu­al­ly sub­side and allow us to live our lives again, I’ll be able to do fun things like speak at the Chau­tauqua in Ecuador, attend a Col­bie Cail­lat con­cert, all of the Blues and Car­di­nals games, and maybe even trav­el to vis­it friends again. There’s a book­store in Nashville call­ing my name! 

I hope your 2021 treat­ed you well, and that your 2022 is your best year yet. Hap­py new year, friends!

Love, 
Gwen

Thanks for read­ing! Do you have any big goals or plans for the new year?