{"id":7113,"date":"2020-11-02T23:02:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T23:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/?p=7113"},"modified":"2024-11-28T18:27:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T02:27:31","slug":"year-23-taking-control-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/year-23-taking-control-of-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Year 23: Taking Control of My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\">My 23rd year started with a big goal to purchase a home in San Francisco. I had been planning for this milestone since I was 18, and actually predicted (or hoped) it would happen by age 22\/23. By this time last year, I was deep into the house hunt and had been analyzing the market for months. Despite the winter slowdown in inventory, I pushed forward with the search and finally in late January, closed on my first duplex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The next month, I worked feverishly to place a tenant in my property to minimize vacancy costs. Fortunately, that was completed before March, at which point, I was ready to relax. Little did I know the pandemic that was looming ahead. The initial months of quarantine were uncertain, but I didn\u2019t mind having more time to myself. I started baking again, read books that have been on my shelf for years, (re)started this blog, and picked up knitting (my favorite hobby at the moment!!). I spent more time with my parents, my sister, and eventually a few good friends every week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">As the world changed and shifted around me, so did my perspective on what was considered \u201cnormal\u201d. I began to reflect more on life, my purpose here, and my goals. I\u2019ve already shared some of these initial thoughts, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/a-daily-dose-of-death\/\">the reality of death<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/the-direction-of-society\/\">the direction of our society<\/a>. These ideas have been developing in my head for a few years now, but this time around, they struck a chord with me. I felt inspired to act in alignment with these thoughts and that\u2019s how, in mid-September, I bought <a href=\"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/my-first-one-way-ticket-to\/\">a one-way ticket<\/a> to the middle of nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The middle of nowhere ended up being Utah. I spent 3 weeks in the north and south &#8211; hiking, working remotely, breathing in the fresh air, and clearing my mind. We did a <a href=\"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/6-national-parks-in-6-days\/\">week-long national park tour<\/a>, hitting all the Utah National Parks and even one in Nevada. After that, I spent four weeks in Prescott, Arizona, exploring nearby red rock formations, canyons, and scorching deserts. My journey then took me east to Boston. The weather has been so chaotic since I arrived &#8211; rainy, first snowfall in October, gusty winds, and back to fall weather &#8211; but I\u2019ve been enjoying the city life again. It\u2019s been a whirlwind ever since I started this adventure, and there&#8217;s no telling what&#8217;s next. I&#8217;m still in Boston, with no return flight set and uncertain plans beyond this coming weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Wow. A year ago, I never would\u2019ve imagined that I\u2019d be fulfilling my dream of being a nomad, leaving it all, working remotely, and traveling on my own. My courage to take this leap came from nights of pondering life and what I want out of it, so I\u2019m grateful for those deep, insightful evenings. I feel like this year has been my busiest year ever, and how ironic that it happened during a global pandemic. But perhaps that is life &#8211; increasingly complex as the years go by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Thankful for a wonderful 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My 23rd year started with a big goal to purchase a home in San Francisco. I had been planning for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Year 23: Taking Control of My Life - sallybzhao<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/year-23-taking-control-of-my-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Year 23: Taking Control of My Life - sallybzhao\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My 23rd year started with a big goal to purchase a home in San Francisco. 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