2019: A Year in Review

Abby Graf
Dec 31, 2019
4 min read

What a year it has been! This was one of the most important and life-changing years of my life. With 2018 came a whirlwind of traveling, with 2019 came a year of growing, learning, and finding my place in this world.

I’m so ready to ring in the new decade, but first I wanted to carry on the tradition of last year and share a 2019 Year in Review (you can check out last year's post here). I accomplished a lot this year and I am so proud of everything I’ve done and the people I’ve surrounded myself with. I spent time with family and friends, graduated college, traveled to multiple places, attended many concerts, ate delicious foods and enjoyed some amazing new music that completely defined my year (s/o Taylor, Ari, Khalid, Harry).

I wanted to wrap up this year by sharing my favorite memories from 2019, so here we go!

I first want to start off by sharing what my personal Instagram feed has looked like over the last year, as it's a really great insight into my life outside of the blog and it basically describes me to a T.

And now for my favorite mems...

Disneyworld + Melbourne Beach Vacation

What a blast this was, it was so great to be back in Disneyworld after 15 years. We jam-packed in four parks, Disney Springs plus Universal. Not to mention, our 3 day beach vacay in Melbourne was amazing as well. You can check out my travel guide here, and book the beachfront hotel we stayed in here (highly, highly recommend)!

California + Disneyland + iHeart Radio Music Awards

I somehow find myself in California every single year and have for the last five years. I went with my college friend, Emily and we spent a day in San Diego and a few in LA. We went to the iHeart Radio Music Awards where Taylor accepted her “Tour of the Year” award, went to Disneyland, Disney’s Boardwalk, a tour of Warner Brothers Studios, the Golden Gopher bar and more.

Spontaneous one night trip to NYC from San Diego

The Pennsy Bar op of the RockOur flight home from San Diego ended up getting canceled and we were projected to leave a day earlier than planned. Because it was my final spring break, I changed my flight home to NYC and took a spontaneous one night trip out there. My best friend was on vacay visiting the city, so I stayed with her and I made the most out of my 24 hours there. Ramen Takumi (my favorite sushi), , Central Park....I really packed it all in. Read my NYC Travel Guide Part One coming at the end of this week., Times Square, the T

I got my first two tattoos (within two weeks of each other)

When I met Taylor Swift in Loft 89 in 2015, I desperately wanted to ask her to write down the lyrics “I don’t wanna dance if I’m not dancing with you” so I could get them tattooed. I miserably failed, entirely too caught up in the moment. But alas, I was graced with the opportunity to meet her again in 2018 in rep Room. There I asked her to hand write the lyrics to my favorite song for a tattoo I had wanted since 2012 and she happily obliged. It’s now my favorite thing ever. A little personalized piece of Taylor to always have with me. The heart comes from her signature, and a fun fact about it is that I got it done in a dorm room...literally.

I GRADUATED COLLEGE!

After three long and hard years of pushing myself, I graduated with a degree in a Professional Writing and Communication and minors in marketing and PR at the age of 20. Read my entire college reflection now.

I TURNED 21!

On my 21st birthday, I shared 21 lessons I learned. You can read all of them here now.

Lover was released

You all know how much I absolutely adore Taylor Swift. August 23rd was a huge day for us Swifties! Read my review now. (P.s. any readers heading to #LoverFestWest next year?! I’ll be there night two!)

I started a full time job with the best company and have been with them for three months now (!!!)

For privacy reasons, I’m choosing to keep the name of my company out of the public chatter. But I work as a Social Media Advertising Specialist and I truly love it! My team is great, my company is so fun and we all have our minds set on the same ideas and goals for the future. It’s a really welcoming and open environment and I truly feel as though I lucked out with this position (especially after eight months of hunting for one, lol).

New York City during the holiday season with my sister

We did so SO much on this vacation, but it was one of the best times I’ve ever had in my life. To keep it short and to not spoil the surprises in my Travel Guides that are just around the corner, a few of my favorite things from the trip were: Z100 Jingle Ball, seeing Taylor perform on her 30th birthday and singing happy birthday to her, a Helicopter Tour over Manhattan with HeliFlights (book here), the Monarch Rooftop Bar and Mean Girls on Broadway. My travel guide will be split into two parts, the first one going live at the end of the week.