What Happens When You Put a Beach Bum in the Snow?
- By Hannah Spraker
- Jan 1, 2018
- 3 min read
What happens when you put a beach bum in the snow? I'm about to find out.
As 2017 has come to close there are a lot of things I would like to leave with it. This past year was difficult for me. I went through my first major heartbreak and betrayal, I got my first big girl job, all while tackling health issues that stem from a very long story that I will get into at a later post. That being said, this year has probably been the most rewarding of my life.
Going through a major breakup and heartbreak I really learned a lot about myself. I learned that I put my dreams on the back burner to try and help someone else's come true, someone who had no regard for mine. I learned that I really wasn't as happy as I thought I was in that relationship. I learned that at the end of the day, I have an army of amazing human beings that love me and support me and my dreams, and I learned that there's almost nothing a bath, Frank Sinatra and a glass of wine can't fix.
This past year I traveled a bit. I rang in 2017 in Vancouver, I went to Vegas for the NHL Awards, I took a road trip to Oregon with my mom, and I got on a plane to visit friends in Toronto, which was the first time I had every flown solo. If I could travel for a living, I would hands down. When I graduated high school, I wanted to do what my cousins did in Australia--be an AuPair. For a girl in her 20's, what better way to get to see the world? My parents insisted that I stay in the states and get my college degree---which I will always be thankful for.
So why not go anywhere? The problem--I love hockey and covering hockey too much to leave that behind. My mom was born in Toronto, so by descent I am a Canadian citizen. When I went to visit friends in September, I just knew. If I wanted to cover hockey and live somewhere new for a while and travel, this was it.
So, I've decided to put myself first. To try, give it my all, and see what happens. I'm young, I have my degree and experience to fall back on, I'm single, so why the hell not? I get to travel and cover hockey which is the best of both worlds for me. As I pack my life into a couple of suitcases, I don't really know what to expect. I'm excited and terrified at the same time. But one thing I do know is; if I fall on my ass, so be it. I have plenty of people who I know will help pick me up, and that means the world to me.
This is going to be an adjustment. I've never been away from home for more than a month. I'm super close with my family and my friends and I love the beach. Most days I am not working in Orange County, you can find me at the beach, either surfing, running or just relaxing. When I was little I was a beach baby for sure, running around the beach completely naked as a toddler--- it's just how you raise kids in a beach town. Fast forward 20 something years, I'm still that beach baby, just maybe covering a "little bit" more. I wait for Acacia swimwear's launch of each collection like it's Christmas morning. So now I'm sitting here, looking at the weather in Toronto currently, staring at my 30 bathing suits and one jacket. Yikes.
So here's to 2018, here goes nothing, and here I will be documenting my year in Toronto. Maybe I'll end up staying there, maybe I'll go somewhere new. Maybe I come back to sunny Orange County, its all unknown. But if this past year has taught me anything, it's that planning out your life doesn't always work, and sometimes God has a bigger and better path for you to travel down.
So....what happens when you throw a beach bum in the snow? Stay tuned to find out.
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