Amy Williams

I just moved temporarily to a new city, and I’m not in love with the city. I kind of hate it, to be honest, and I’m glad this isn’t a permanent stay. But that’s okay. I’ve accepted I don’t have to love the place to find corners and bits of it that I do love.

First place I’ve really fallen for is a local yoga studio that I found via Yelp. Went by and tried a first class with them – had my doubts because I was coming into the class tired, it was raining, and I was grumpy. And it was amazing. The kindest, quietest, most centered place I’ve been in a very long time.

Most of my yoga so far has been me self-teaching since I wasn’t near a studio. Having an instructor (a fantastic one, at that) to guide our small group and make individual adjustments was brilliant. Basically, I loved everything about it, and I have never been so sore the next day from a yoga session. The studio I found has a first-class-free policy, which obviously works well because I’m definitely going back. Huge recommendations for anyone starting yoga to try small group classes like this.

I’m calling this done because, since making this a goal last year, I’ve fallen so completely in love with dresses again that they’re now my go-to outfit whenever I’m not working. Even begun sewing my own to save costs.

Of course, the flip side of this is that I have to seriously censor myself in the Modcloth dress section. Too many beauties!

Been out of university for eight months now, and I have landed enough freelance work in those months to move to a large city, live fairly comfortably, and turn down absolutely every kindhearted offer of monetary help the parents put out there. I think they’re finally catching on that, yes, I do run my own life now, and I’m willing to accept the financial burden that comes with that.

Keep the minimum necessary for fuel & groceries in my checking account, rest in savings, and a few months ago I opened a Roth IRA with monthly deposits. It’s not a lot, but hey, that’s a start. At 21, I could certainly be doing worse.