A Réintroduction
*ahem ahem. Cue Jay-Z* “Allow me to re-introduce myself"
Coucou! C’est moi! Guys, so much has happened since I last posted, July 14, 2021 to be exact… but who’s asking?
Whew, well let's jump right in:
I'm a fiancée!!!!
I'm marrying my high school sweetheart *cries in Spanish* It was the perfect proposal. It is safe to say Gabriel knows me well. Expect wedding planning blogs in the near future! So I figured I would break down this post by months and I hope you all enjoy getting a glimpse of my life over the past year.
August 2021:
Leo season! I turned the big 25 last year and now I'm 26...crazy how time works like that. I celebrated my birthday in Miami with some of my besties, Valentina (little), Bianca (G), and our boo thangs! Then I went to Panama to continue birthday celebrations, this time for my great grandma! She turned 98 and thanks be to God, she is still with us now and is one year closer to a whole century!! Her OLDER sister I believe is 102, so clearly, great genes run in the family.
September 2021:
I started travel nursing this month, with my first assignment being in Coral Springs, Florida! I moved in with my aunt for the 2 months I was out there and I loved it! The staff I worked with was great and I loved being able to live in South Florida for some time.
October 2021:
Work. That is all I really did haha. I started hot yoga and LOVED it! I would go straight after the night shift (am I crazy?) to make it to class with my favorite instructors. I also discovered Trader Joe's….and honestly, I will never be the same. I really wish they had one in Melbourne, but of course, we can’t have nice things.
November 2021:
I finished my first contract, and moved back home! While being back home I was making a ton of reel content for my Instagram and spending time with Gabriel before he left for SPAIN! He was being sent for a short tour, and I was thinking of all the ways I could go live with him, but ultimately, it wasn’t meant to be. Instead, I decided to continue travel nursing to save up and visit him as much as I can.
December 2021:
I was off to Spain for a month!! Gabriel (still) lives in Utrera, a small town south of Sevilla! I spent Christmas and New Year’s with him (sorry mom and dad) and we had so much fun exploring Utrera with our new friends, Jesus & Irene. We spent 5 days in Barcelona (blog post coming soon about that) and did a day tour to the cutest town, Girona. For all of you Game of Thrones lovers, some of the show was recorded in Girona and Sevilla! I have only seen season 1 unfortunately, 3 times to be exact…..oops.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
January 2022:
I welcomed the New Year with Gabriel (in the 10 years of knowing each other, we have never been together for New Year). Soon after though, we parted ways. It was time to come home and I cried like a baby on the train *embarrassing* I started my next travel contract alongside my bestie, Alyssa! I was so happy to work in my hometown and with my best friend again! (miss you, Taylor). I also started the journey to becoming a family nurse practitioner!
February 2022:
Not much went on here, just working a lot, studying a lot, and attempting to stay healthy.
March 2022:
Started the month off with a bang at Tiffani’s bachelorette in Savannah!!! What a fun weekend celebrating the beautiful future Mrs. Mullan (now officially Mrs. Mullan). We drank, danced, and laughed until we couldn’t anymore. After that, March was pretty chill. I had my first facial, ou la la.
April 2022:
After too long without seeing my girlfriends, I was able to see my little and G in Miami. I made a spontaneous trip because I HAD to go see Rauw Alejandro *Rauw Rauw* in concert! That was THE BEST concert of my life, hands down. Click here to see Bianca & I's TikTok of getting ready. Later that month, I made my way back to Panama, this time with Ashley and her family! Ashley hadn’t been back since…I don’t even know when. It was so nice to spend time with our family, but so different now that Ashley has a family of her own *cries*
May 2022:
The time had come, time to get Tiffani married!!! What a beautiful bride, couple & ceremony. I ugly cried hard when I saw Tiffani in her dress. For background info on our friendship, she was one of the main reasons I joined the sorority I did and then we moved in together and the rest is history.
June 2022:
One year since my beautiful nana left this Earth. The family all reunited in Arizona to celebrate Nana's first heavenly birthday. Some of the family visited her gravesite and honestly, it was a beautiful moment of remembrance and laughs. Every day I miss my nana and I feel blessed to know I have such a beautiful angel watching over me. I was and still am, her black-eyed susan. On a lighter note, I finally got to see my boobear after a long 5 months. This time, I was staying for 3 months!! I landed in Spain on our 10-year anniversary of meeting each other in person.
July 2022:
The official start to some of the best months of my life!! We started my trip with a vacation to Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands. We spent one week here, half the time in the south and the other half in the north (also a blog post soon to come). We spent these days relaxing in the natural pools, me almost dying of a panic attack trying to get to Mount Teide (make sure to check out the blog post for this hilarious story), and eating whatever our hearts desired. After this vacation, we took a break (our piggy banks needed it) and lived day-to-day life out here. We cooked, worked out, and I did lots of school work. We took a weekend trip to Ronda and surprisingly, ate some of the best Italian food we've ever had (you guessed it, a blog post soon to come).
August 2022:
And we are back in August!! This was the month that changed my life. My best friend asked me to marry him!! And a few days later my parents and Tía Mary would be in Spain with us to celebrate!!! He proposed to me in PARIS!!!! Full circle moment with the blog name! (Bonjourmelanie if you forgot). After Paris, we came back to Sevilla to welcome my family and start some more travels! We went to the coastline of Spain, Morocco, and Portugal (…..you already know what I am going to say). We had such a great time together and I can't wait for more family trips!
September 2022:
Once my family left, reality set in….I leave soon. I have already cried a good amount of times thinking of saying "see you later" to my best friend…but I can’t deny that I am excited to go home and be with my parents and see my friends again. But this time there is a hard pill to swallow…
This is probably the last time I will live with my parents. If you think of your parents as your best friends, you understand the pain I am feeling, especially if you are an only child. I am not just moving out of my parent's home to live nearby, or even a couple of hours away… I am moving to who knows where (thank you military). I have moved out before, for college, but things were different then. I was excited to “grow up” and be on my own as an adult. Now, all I want is to be close to my parents and continue to grow old with them. They are my best friends as I said, my confidants, my role models, my everything! I can’t imagine a life where they aren’t just downstairs, where I can’t mountain bike with them on the weekends, or just lay around watching movies. This is the pill I have to swallow.
Do I sound crazy??? Honestly, I don’t care. I owe everything to my parents, and I am forever grateful to them.
SO, if you are still here, congratulations!! This was a long one. I am so happy to be back and cannot wait to show you guys all the travel blogs and recommendations I have for you guys!
Bisous,
Melanie
