A Look Back on the Year of Hustle

 Rather than adopting resolutions for the new year, I started declaring a one-word theme that would consistently point me in the right direction throughout the year. Last year's word was HUSTLE, and hustle I did. 2016 is considered another great year in the books for the Bianchi fam, but I'm not going to lie, it was tough. It was a good  kind of tough in that we truly hustled towards our goals but not without challenge. For more details, challenges stated below.

• While I absolutely love my job, traveling every other week when you have a family can be hard. Sure, Mommy's not having to cook, getting to take up as much room in the bed as she wants, and taking a shower without disruption every time she goes on a vacation business trip. But rather than taking advantage of the city I'm in by exploring the sites or binge watching HGTV (which I NEVER get to do at home), I spend a good portion of the evening watching videos and combing through pictures of my child. I miss Anthony & August terribly while I'm away, but that's not something that was new to 2016. The tough part was the fact that August is now aware that Mommy's gone and is old enough to see my suitcase and say, "No leave, Mommy." Whew, that's tough y'all. 

• Anthony had a big year as well. Studying like a MADMAN for boards, taking boards, 30-day audition rotations away from home, and interview season. For those of you guys not in the know--that's A LOT of time away from home. You can't just take your boards anywhere--no, that would be too easy. You have to fly to Philadelphia--which was an AWESOME mini-vacation for Mommy and Daddy. Anthony did not live with us for 2 consecutive months while he was doing his audition rotations. That's right, I was single-momming it up. (Shoutout to the single moms out there. Respect!) As if that wasn't hard enough, we had to abruptly pull August from daycare and the ONLY respectable center that actually had an opening adds 2 hours to my daily commute. Whew! Hard times. But enough about how hard that was on me. This may be MY blog, but this post is about the fam. That's a lot of change for a 2 year old. He doesn't understand why Babbo isn't going to be  home in a little bit. He has no clue why he's being dropped off with all new people in a new place with a new schedule. Also, let's not forget to discuss the fact that poor Anthony doesn't get to come home to his family each night for TWO months. Let me remind you how ridiculous I am when I only have to leave for a couple of days. NO WAY I could handle two months. As soon as the audition rotation period was over, interview season began (which is also when the holiday season began.) Anthony and I wanted to tackle these interview trips together since we both need to feel a connection to the city and program since it will dictate our lives for the next five years. I wasn't able to go on all of the interview trips since I always double up on travel weeks for work during Nov and Dec because I don't want to be trying to prepare for my trips on holiday weeks. That alone can be enough to pull my hair out. But try this to really make you go cross-eyed: Monday: Board a flight to Texas. Thursday: Fly home. Well, not actually home. Fly to my parent's house so I can see August. Friday: Drive to Birmingham to see Anthony. Saturday: Board a flight to Kansas City for interview. Monday: Fly home to Birmingham. Tuesday: Fly to Charleston. Thursday night: Fly to Birmingham. Friday: Drive to get August and bring him home. Spend a couple days at home then drive to spend a few days with the fam for the holidays. That was our life for a while. Whew, that's tough y'all.

  Now don't you go feeling sorry for us. Anthony and I both went into all of this willingly. We are both very passionate about what we do and knew the pursuit of our dreams comes with some sacrifice. We knew 2016 would be a tough year. Hence, the HUSTLE theme. Looking back, it was the perfect word for that time in our lives. It took HUSTLE to get through it.