Hello, hello, hello.
Happy New Year's Eve if you are listening to this
on New Year's Eve.
Happy last day of 2024.
If you are listening to this and it's 2025 now,
happy official new year.
As I am recording this,
I am literally as scatterbrained as anybody could be.
It is a few days before new years as I'm recording this
and Marco and I have company coming literally
at this second as I am recording this.
They flew all the way from Munich
and I just got back from work from my office
and I am literally just fitting in this episode
and I have to say there are so many things
that I wanna say, but I'm gonna do my best to cram this
all into a shorter period of time.
The title of this episode today is very fitting
of this current crazy, chaotic scatterbrained situation
when plans don't work out.
I had planned for this episode to be a video episode.
I had also planned on doing a completely different topic,
which I will now be doing next week.
The holidays, as I'm sure you may know,
or as I'm sure you have experienced at some point before,
maybe even this year, this is a busy time.
This time of the year really slapped me in the face
harder and faster than I really could have anticipated
and I did not frankly do a good job with my planning.
I woke up on Christmas day and I have to say,
I was burned out.
I was so exhausted.
I have been pouring in so much time, energy, hours,
as I'm sure many of you have been doing with your jobs
and hobbies and people in your lives,
you have just been pouring this immense amount of time
and energy and come Christmas, come the holidays,
you are literally done.
And my slap in the face came on Christmas day.
I had to take a break.
I couldn't implement my plans the way I wanted.
I really had to juggle time with managing FaceTime calls
with Marco and I's friends and family
or his family in Germany.
Also my family Christmas parties
and then cleaning up for our special guests
who are coming from Germany today.
So it's been a mess, but I think it's very fitting
and I think we can all relate to that feeling of burnout.
So because of my plans personally being scatterbrained,
I am going to be talking about some different topics
for this week and also to kick off the new year of 2025.
I really cannot believe that we are at this point
in the year and wow, we are literally done.
Like what happened to this year?
I'm sure you're listening to this and you're thinking,
yeah, Mary Grace, same, same.
What I wanted to touch upon today is a little bit different
than just a travel story and travel lessons,
but travel definitely is intertwined in this topic
of new years and talking about lessons learned
throughout the year, the good, the bad and the ugly
and just a tad bit of gossip.
And of course, what is going to be in store for 2025
in terms of travel and the podcast itself.
We'll go ahead and jump right into this.
And hopefully with some of the lessons
that I have personally picked up
from my good and bad experiences,
I hope that you can take some of these lessons yourself
and implement them into your new years
refresh and strategy in making this a whole brand new,
beautiful year, however that looks for you.
The first thing that I learned this year
that I will not be taking into 2025
is putting too damn much on my plate.
I need and really want to create a more balanced plate.
Like I said at the beginning of this episode,
I woke up on Christmas day, burnt the fuck out.
It was just horrible.
And I just was kind of in this rut.
I was literally reflecting and I was like,
oh my gosh, it's Christmas day.
I didn't spend that much time with my friends this season.
I didn't plan as many big milestones this year.
I wanna do that this next year with planning some big trips,
which I'll get into in a little bit as well.
Not only with the podcast,
but I was also previously teaching English on the side.
And that just got to be too much,
but I'll get more to that in a little bit.
I was so busy learning new skills
in the Adobe Creative Suite to produce content
that I didn't even feed Marco and me properly.
Like literally, I was cooking the same basic meals.
I would forget to do like some little chores
and it was just not good.
I was not spending enough time on self care
and in nurturing my relationships.
And for what?
Like literally, I was trying so hard to push my contents,
trying so hard to be a perfectionist.
I have been learning and it's been valuable,
but I really just think that I need to step on the break.
I wanna make more time for learning and self care
and in the little joys of people in life.
I really don't wanna come back this time next year
and to say, oh, I didn't focus enough on people.
I didn't go out at Christmas time.
I didn't do anything that I really remember.
What did I do?
I made Instagram content and I published podcast content,
which I love, but there just needs to be more of a balance.
And if you have a hobby in your life
that you've spent an exuberant amount of time on,
you understand where I'm coming from.
Even if it's not a hobby, say that it's work.
Many of us don't balance our plates because of work.
One of our friends visiting from Germany
told us that she hasn't had any time to rest
because of traveling so much for work.
Since this year, she was on a team
that helped organize the Euro Cup in Berlin,
which is really cool, by the way.
She told us that she traveled so much this past year
all over Germany and also traveled
on her personal international trips
that she hasn't even gotten to explore Munich
where she lives now and that her brain has had no break
and she is so tired.
And I have another friend, my best friend from high school,
who became a flight attendant earlier this year
and is now based far away from home here in Georgia.
And not having a long enough break from work
to be back home with her boyfriend
and constantly being on the road and not relaxing
has really taken a toll on her mental health.
Both of these examples, not even hobby-related
but work-related, really paint a picture
of what I believe a number of us in careers
and with work experience, experience,
even without the travel.
It's important that we block out little pockets of time
in our calendar at least a few days a week
or whatever we can manage to pamper, rest,
and truly recharge.
So take more time for yourself the next year in little ways,
like planning a weekly or bi-weekly meetup
with a certain friend for coffee or dinner,
a weekly date night, planning a monthly weekend day trip
or even a weekend trip in general,
or even planning a virtual monthly FaceTime call
with a drink, like Marco and I will plan on doing in 2025
with our good friend Jason in Nova Scotia, Canada.
These sorts of little carved out dedicated personal events
help recharge our batteries and make us feel more stable,
balanced, and connected.
And I hope that you consider some of these same ideas
to balance your own plate more in the new year
with these closest and most important people to you.
There are so many things that I've learned this year,
but the second thing that I have chosen to share
and that I think a lot of us can relate to
is a friendship point.
The second point and lesson that I've learned
is friendship comes in so many forms,
but I truly saw personally in my life this year
who dedicated as much time, sacrifice, and energy as I have.
I have two very good friends in my life
and one of them I know regularly listens to this podcast,
so I think she knows who she is.
So there is her.
And then I have this other friend from college.
And I have seen in the last year truly how true friendship
has opened up its wings and shown me its true colors.
The friend who I'm sure is listening to this podcast
has been there from day one since I started the podcast,
has always been so encouraging.
We've had our many seasons together.
We went to high school together.
We didn't talk for some years, then we got back in touch.
And then I think she had some other best friends
and then she came back.
But at the end of the day, what I've seen is
this friendship is so resilient
and I never wanna give that up.
Whereas this other friend who I really do cherish,
I feel like I was kind of pushed on the back burner.
We are very good friends,
but I feel like she has many, many, many other friends.
And that was really a harsh reality check
because for example, I will spill some tea.
For her birthday, I spent a pretty big amount of money
on something she really wanted for her birthday
that she explicitly asked for.
And even at the time, I was going through my own
like financial crunching,
and I still wanted to make that happen
and buy this thing for her because she was my friend.
I wanted to prove and show that yes,
this is kind of hard for me to buy right now,
but I really wanna get it because you are so special to me.
And then my birthday came around in November
and I did not get the same thing in return.
It's not so much the money that mattered.
It was the fact that we couldn't even meet up.
And when we did make plans to meet up,
she had already had plans lined up with other friends
who she had had in her life.
And now I still have not seen her
and it's almost two months past November
and I can't even get a visit.
In her defense though, she is a flight attendant
and has taken a lot of extra shifts this year,
dedicates most of her free time these days to her partner,
as she should, and doesn't live so close to me.
But I still will say a little more effort
from those who mean a lot to us truly never hurts.
I will also spill more tea and give another example.
I had an old friend back in Turkey
who actually got married earlier this year.
And I say old friend because I do think
that now she is an old friend.
We don't talk anymore.
Because I could not attend her wedding,
she stopped talking to me.
And I think that this is ridiculous.
I truly was not able in my circumstances
to attend her wedding and she has held it
against me ever since.
True friends as we know do not do that.
As we get older, friendship dynamics and priorities change.
But that we should dedicate more time in the new year
investing in and nurturing the friendships
that continue to serve us as we serve them.
Maybe have more virtual calls with these friends
or get them some little spontaneous gifts
of kindness and surprise.
I don't know, like a box of chocolates
or a card or whatever.
And just practice more acts of gratitude.
Or if they're farther away, like some of my friends are,
go and even visit them on a long weekend
or plan a long weekend trip together elsewhere.
Keeping our friendship strong in turn, keep us strong.
I see where my attention is going to be dumped more into
in the new year and I hope you do that too
with your friendships.
This next point has to do with travel.
So after Marco and I traveled to Columbia with his friends,
his friend group, or some of them at least,
I realized and learned truly bigger group traveling
is not for me.
This is not to say that it was a bad trip.
Actually, for the most part, we had very little drama come up
but there was one person in the group
who really, really got under my skin.
I won't get too much into that for now
but it just takes one person to ruin a trip
and to really dampen the mood.
And I have learned that traveling, I think in a group
of higher than four, again, is just not for me.
I was a solo traveler for a number of years.
I love traveling even with one other person,
even two and even three,
if there's a similar compatibility
in terms of travel and values.
If you have ever traveled in a big group,
I think you know where I'm coming from with this.
It can be hard to compromise and hard to release,
enjoy the trip as much as you could
if it was a smaller group.
Also, my travel priorities and values over time have changed
and I'm honestly more spoiled now than I'm older
and make more money than I did in my early twenties.
I don't wanna stay in hostels.
I don't mind splurging.
I just, I'm different now.
And so I was doing some travel planning also
with this same friend from high school
who I'm sure is listening right now.
And at one point earlier this year,
we were originally planning a trip to Colorado.
And I remember she mentioned wanting to stay in hostels
and really doing this on the cheap.
And I love doing stuff on the cheap.
I really do.
But I do think that if it's a vacation
and you don't have a lot of vacation days,
I think that you should cherish your time
a little bit more and spend a little bit more money.
But that's a whole other conversation.
Not that big of a deal,
but it's just something that I think we all go through also.
As we get older, we kinda want more luxury
and that is completely okay.
The takeaway here is that even though I've realized
bigger group travel isn't for me,
I'm so glad that I have at least tried
and that I learned from experience.
You never know if you don't try.
It's also okay to embrace change in values and preferences
as we continue to get older.
Prioritize yourself and get what you want most out of travel
and adventure this next year.
Be more daring, be more open to trying things
you normally don't try.
And even if it's a bust,
you once again gain some more wisdom
and experience out of trying.
And the last and honestly most important thing
for me personally that I have learned this year
is truly realizing my worth and time.
And what I mean by this is this year,
I truly realize the importance of giving up putting energy
into activities that no longer serve me like before.
I mentioned a little earlier,
I previously was teaching English on the side.
That had been my job actually for five years.
And this year, I just got to a point
where I really evaluated my time
and the way I was spending it.
I was really not getting the same dopamine
and the same benefits with teaching English
like I was before.
I had no opportunity for a raise
on the platform that I was on.
I was never going to get a raise.
That's not part of the structure of the platform.
The taxes are a bitch to file every year.
And honestly, over the last couple of years,
I have only taken home about $4,000 from doing that.
And I have paid 1500 in taxes.
So you can see why this is not worth my time anymore.
I really have made great friendships on this platform
and I still have these friends today,
but it's not for almost 30 year old, Mary Grace.
Just no, I was pouring in so much energy into this
and getting very little out of it and I was over it.
My time is more valuable than that.
I just decided that if this activity wasn't something
that was going to serve me and help me grow and learn,
then I wasn't gonna continue to do it if I didn't have to.
Time is the most valuable asset that we have
because we can truly never get it back.
You can always get more money.
You can always go and do something on the side
and you can find a way to get more money in your account,
but time does not come in an account.
Time is what it is and that's it.
That is all you get.
And for me personally, I am in a point in my life
where growth and growth trajectory mean more to me
than short-term gains financially.
So if you are in a position in your life,
pouring your energy into cups
that are not poured back in return,
you really should consider revisiting
and prioritizing activities, people,
and goals most crucial to your best self
and wellbeing in the new year.
You'll only thank yourself later for that.
With those lessons divulged and shared,
I will go ahead and just review very briefly
about what we have in store in 2025 for travel
and the podcast, and then we will wrap this up.
So for the podcast, it will still be the same structure,
unless I say differently, once a week.
I will still be publishing travel story reels on Instagram
if you're really into those
because those are very short and easy to take in
and they reach a good number of people.
I will work on publishing some more advanced video content
and graphics and hopefully get more on YouTube,
but that will be a process throughout 2025.
Another thing that I really, really wanna do,
and probably the biggest change or biggest advancement
in the podcast is to have more guests
from diverse backgrounds and experiences on the podcast
to share their own travel stories and tips
and things that they've seen and et cetera.
Like for example, I have a friend slash colleague
who grew up in Benin, West Africa,
who I would love to have on to talk about her life
and upbringing in Africa.
I would also like to have my best friend from high school
who herself has also been to several places in Africa.
We have our Canadian friend, Jason from Nova Scotia,
who has been to some very adventurous places
that I have never been to, like Uzbekistan, Australia,
to name a couple of those.
I think that would be fun to hear.
And I have a Russian friend now living in Australia
who has lived in Turkey and Serbia
and also an Italian friend who used to live in Brazil.
So you get the point.
I wanna have these people on
and they can share their own culture and travel experiences.
So stay tuned, hopefully we can get that rolling and going.
And in terms of travels, I have made a point to Marco
that for my 30th birthday in November,
because I will be 30 in November, 2025,
I wanna go somewhere very, very big for my 30th birthday.
And I know exactly where I wanna go.
I won't reveal it for now.
You'll have to stay tuned to figure out
and learn what that will be.
But I wanna go somewhere very, very far away from the US.
That takes forever to get to, so use your imagination.
We have our friend Jason again from Nova Scotia
who we would love to go visit up in Canada the next summer.
Fingers crossed that that can happen.
My best friend from high school again
is now based in New Jersey for her job.
And I wanna go visit her at some point
when the weather is warmer here.
And I also wanna go to New York at Christmas time next year.
Last but not least in my perfect world,
I would love for us to go to Germany next Christmas.
But with the way our paid vacation days are here in the US,
I don't think we'll get to do all that,
but at least it's a start.
And at least I think in 2026, we can make that happen.
So that is basically a rundown of 2024 in a nutshell
or semi nutshell, and also what is in store for 2025.
I would absolutely love to hear your goals and dreams
and beyond for 2025 as well.
If you have any travel plans,
if you have some specific goals that you're trying to reach,
if you wanna make some changes that you've never done before,
or if you have some valuable lessons
or some really, really insightful points
that I did not mention here,
if you have any requests,
if you have any comments, suggestions, whatever,
please do message me on Instagram at onceuponatrip.pc
or message me on my host ighandle at marygracecroffert.
And please let me know what is on your mind.
I would really love to hear your stories
and what you have in mind
because it's not just a one-way street.
I wanna hear what you are gonna be up to
and what you will be embarking on in the new year.
So with that being said,
I will go ahead and wrap up this episode.
I hope that you took something away from this
and I hope that you can apply one or two
or maybe all of the points to some degree
in your new year life coming up.
I look forward to being back here next week
for another fun, adventurous trip of an episode.
I will see you then.