As 2025 approaches, I reflect on how my experiences, both highs and lows, have shaped the past year. Since riding a bicycle has become a bigger part of my life and is one of my favorite things to do my year-end reflections gravitate to this activity with my cycling year in review.
Truth and love go hand-in-hand. “Truth without love is like a sledgehammer and love without truth is like syrup.” This quote is from Father Mike Schmitz of the Bible in a Year podcast (Day 357).
A friend asked if I manifested my relationship with my husband, Alex. I believe I did. Previous relationships and "situationships" left me confused and doubting myself. Those experiences helped me be clear about what I wanted to attract. I prayed for clarity about what I truly wanted so I could manifest it, and I asked God for discernment and the courage to walk away if it wasn't aligned.
Being from New York, it's funny how I hadn't heard about the TD Five Boro Bike Tour until I moved to Cincinnati. Maybe it wasn't on my radar because I didn’t ride a bike then. Even so, with thousands of riders (this year had over 32,000) and the roads closed to traffic, I'm surprised I didn't know about it sooner.
I never thought of myself as an athlete. Not when I trained to walk a marathon or walked/ran countless 5Ks, or when I started hiking and did close to 50 hikes with the Atlanta Outdoor Club. Not even when I joined a boot camp and went consistently for 6 months.