Welcome to September: A new month. A new school year is here. A new season is coming.

We're here, in this moment. Still breathing, through the smoke in the air (California) or through our masks (COVID-19).

The question I have for you right now is...

Are you enjoying the journey?

Or are you waiting.

Waiting for this year to be over. Waiting for a vaccine. Waiting for a change in the White House. Waiting for whatever is causing you stress, whatever anxiety you feel, whatever it is you're worrying about, to go away first?!

Do you ever feel like people get the wrong impression of you?

Last week, one of my closest friends told me, "Oh, I feel like I know everything you've been up to lately," because she has seen my stories on Instagram, which I tend to use to highlight any time I spend in nature or exercising. This isn’t really a ‘strategy’…it’s just what I tend to take pictures of on any given day!

Her comment struck me as particularly weird from someone I thought should know better - she knows some of my most personal struggles - than to think that was all I'd been "up to lately", and yet...

I get that a lot - especially in our newly 'socially distant' world.

Finally, with my 4-Step Guide to Living Your Best Bilingual Life, I found a way to happily marry my two lines of work and offer it to new students: a way to reach your language goals, and how to apply the work on a deeper, whole-life level.

Then, two days after I sent the last step of the guide out to the NBLC eCommunity, disaster struck: lightning and thunder storms lit up California in the midst of a record August heat-wave and sparked myriad fires across the state.

On top of the coronavirus pandemic, ongoing calls for racial justice and reform, and an emotional presidential election, 2020 had brought us devastating wildfires, evacuations, and power outages, months ahead of “schedule.”

Around me, I heard people say, “Nothing can surprise me anymore.” A friend told me she was ready to drive 20+ hours across multiple state lines just to get away from what she saw as “the cherry on top, but in a bad way.”

I realized the evolution needed to continue, because how can we talk about living your ‘best bilingual life’ in the midst of the sh*tstorm that is 2020?!

Why do you feel tempted to give up before you reach a goal?

The NUMBER ONE reason we want to quit before we make it to the top is a lack of results.

Whatever our goal is, we consciously or unconsciously set expectations for our path to reaching it before we start. Then, as we proceed forward, if we find ourselves where we expected to be at any given point in time, we think, great. I'm right on track and I'm going to accomplish my goal.

When we don't see the results we believe we should see at any given point in time, our next thought becomes: I'm never going to make it.

Now, forgive me, I'm about to show a little math minor here.

The mistake we make when we set our goal is not that we have expectations. We should have a roadmap and a way of measuring progress.

The mistake we make is a common one:

As you may already know, I am an avid reader. I believe it comes with the territory of being a language lover and story teller, and books have been a constant source of entertainment, inspiration, and education for me, but perhaps never moreso than now, in the time of COVID-19 and national conversations about racism.

This book has received it’s fair share of backlash. It’s controversial to those opposed to the notion of white fragility as well as to those who know white fragility exists but believe there are better ways to educate white people about our role in USAmerican society.

Maybe you read it and hate it. Maybe you’re opposed to reading it. Whatever your thoughts, here’s what I want to tell you about my experience reading it:

Last week, I was out on an evening walk with my husband, and I was frustrated.

I ranted and raved as we went around the park, so much so that, when we completed our normal lap, I insisted we do another so that the walk could accomplish its purpose: to allow me to quiet my mind before going back home.

I run an online business, which means I’m often, well, online.

If left to my own devices, I’m sure I’d still be utilizing social media and google in my personal life, but as it’s part of my overall marketing presence and where I hope to connect with potential language learners looking for a breakthrough in their journey to fluency, I purposefully spend a healthy portion of my day engaged with various social media and online outlets.

Like most things, it’s a blessing and a curse.

Read anything good lately?

Anything...scandalous?

I have always been a big reader, thanks in large part to my mom's "No TV in the house" rule. [To be clear, yes, we owned a TV, but it was only used for watching movies.]

Books were always a huge form of entertainment, and as a side bonus, they also helped me to build a tremendous vocabulary from early on.

As a language coach, I (and many other teachers) highly encourage reading in your second language because it is the number ONE way to build your vocabulary.

“What’s your budget?” The silver-haired man with the posh British accent, Vincent, asked me.

I smiled at him confidently. “No budget. I’d like to pay cash for whatever car I end up choosing.”

I saw surprise register faintly in his eyes. He held eye contact, unblinkingly, and I noticed how much his pupils had constricted in the middle of his pale blue eyes. They were like tiny, watery-black pinpricks looking back at me.

“You are aware that…” he paused, a hesitation small and polite, “…some of our cars can run as high as one hundred twenty thousand dollars?”

I smiled again. “Yes. I’m interested in trying quite a few.”

I have changed so much over the past year, both inwardly and outwardly. I can’t wait to live out more of my best bilingual life in 2020.

I feel like I experienced so much of my life, like I was TRULY ME, in the last six months of 2019 that I lived more than I have in the last five years combined, ALL while doing what I love.

Are you living your life, really living it, not just letting it pass by? Do you feel like you get to be fully YOU?

What will your best life look like in 2020?!