One year ago today, I closed escrow on the California home where I raised my family.

On June 1, 2025, I officially began a new chapter.

At the time, everything felt uncertain.

I was navigating the emotional weight of leaving behind a home filled with decades of memories while also trying to manage the stress of selling it. My career felt unstable. There was uncertainty around my role and my future at the company, and what the next season of my life was supposed to look like.

I packed up my life and moved across the country anyway. I remember telling myself one simple thing:

“You can do anything for 12 months.”

At the time, this apartment in Florida was supposed to be temporary. Just a landing place while I figured things out.

Now here I am, exactly one year later, getting ready to move out of this apartment and into a new home here in Florida.  In less than two weeks, I’ll close escrow again. This time, not on the ending of a chapter, but on the beginning of one I chose for myself.

Some days, my old life in California feels like it happened a lifetime ago.

Other days, it feels like yesterday.

I still remember the exhaustion, the uncertainty, the fear of making the wrong decision, and the strange feeling of standing in the middle of a life that no longer fit while having no clear picture yet of what came next.

But somewhere over the last year, things slowly stabilized.

The company went through its transaction and came out the other side under new ownership. My role evolved. The uncertainty that once kept me awake at night slowly turned into confidence again.  And somewhere along the way, I started rebuilding parts of myself too.

When I first came to Florida, I said I wanted a better work-life balance.

I said I wanted to start golfing again.

I said I wanted to create a life that felt lighter.

And somehow, quietly, little by little… I did.

Not perfectly.

Not without heartbreak.

Not without loneliness.

Not without moments where I questioned everything.

But I did it anyway.

Now I’m preparing for a 2½ week trip to Italy, buying a home in Florida, building new routines, creating new memories, and stepping into another chapter that feels far less rooted in survival and much more rooted in intention.

A year ago, I was standing at the edge of the unknown.

Today, I’m standing in the middle of a life I rebuilt from the ground up.

And maybe that’s what this past year was really about:

learning that courage doesn’t always look loud.

Sometimes it looks like quietly choosing yourself over and over again until one day you look around and realize you’re finally home.