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Reflecting On This Decade

End of Decade Reflection | Twinspiration

Usually, on the blog, we like to each recap the highs of the year. Since this is also the end of a decade, we thought it would be fun to work together to choose the high from each year in this decade. Some years were too big to just have one high but we tried to narrow it down.

Hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane (pictures included)!

Highs of each year from the 2010s…

2010: Met + became fast friends with ChalleyReflecting On This Decade | Twinspiration2009 was a huge year for us, we could seriously write an entire blog post on how life-changing that year was. 2010 was a happier, calmer, welcomed change from the previous year. But when we thought back to what happened that year, we immediately thought about meeting one of our best friends, Challey (or “Chay” as she’ll be called for the rest of this post).

Chay’s sister Addy was one of our close friends and neighbors – of course, Chay came to visit her sister and the rest is history. We became fast friends and roommates the following year.

We live far apart from each other now but we cherish her friendship and how she’s always been there for us, no matter what. Love you, Chay!

2011: Started working at Jetsource

Reflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationIt’s been so long, I can’t even remember if we’ve ever mentioned this job on here – but it was life-changing.

For a quick backstory, Britta and I were working as hostesses in a restaurant in early 2011. We didn’t like this job and knew even when we were promoted to servers it just wasn’t for us. One day, one of our regulars approached us and asked if we’d want to work at his airport. Long story short, he was the chief pilot at an FBO – aka: a private airport/general aviation. We immediately Google’d what an FBO was – and while being both excited and naive we accepted the job offer.

This job was everything we needed at the time. We got to work side-by-side at the front desk, we were given more responsibility than we’ve ever had before, we got to meet interesting passengers and pilots and best of all, we were surrounded by co-workers we adored. We were truly a family and to this day we look back at our 3 years at Jetsource and smile from ear to ear. It was a wonderful experience!

2012: 21st Birthday trip to VegasReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationChay is 4 years older than us which made going out to the bars together impossible until we turned 21 (we were not fake ID types). So the countdown to this bday was a big one. We knew the big day required a special trip so the 3 of us booked a suite in Vegas and had the time of our lives. This was ours and Chay’s first time in Vegas and we didn’t care that the winds were horrific or the nights were cold in our short dresses, we had one mission and that was to have a blast when that clock hit midnight on our bday. And a blast was had!

Britta’s side favorite: Meeting TommyReflecting On This Decade | Twinspiration2012 was the year Britta met her boyfriend Tommy – on leap day of all days!

Carli’s side favorite: Started dating JamesReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationI met my bf James in 2009 but we didn’t start dating until 2012. Of course, this is a high of the year for me that requires no explanation 🙂

2013 Part 1: Summer internship for KUSI

Some years require more than one high and 2013 is one of them.

A big high that year was our summer internship at KUSI in San Diego. KUSI is a news station and although we knew someone that knew someone that worked there, we relentlessly emailed their HR manager for over a year to get this internship. We had dreamed of working at a news station since we were little and we would not rest until we got an internship at one.

This internship was filled with so many highs – we got to go out with our favorite camera guy and do all the interviews (very “man on the street” style). We interviewed so many unique individuals and got to really get out and see San Diego. It unfortunately and fortunately also taught us that our dreams of being network news anchors may have to evolve. Even though we loved certain aspects of the job, we both knew this wasn’t the path for us any longer and we wanted to do something more light-hearted for a career.

2013 Part 2: Spring Break trip to NYCReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationAh our sister trip to NYC! This was Britta’s first time in New York and Carli’s second. It was pure magic. We went ice skating in Rockefeller Center (yes, in April, it was freezing), strolled through Central Park, saw a Broadway Musical, ate at all the trendy spots and just took in all that is New York City, our favorite place on earth.

2013 Part 3: Started this blog!Reflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationSee, told you this year was too big to fit into one high.

We started this blog in 2013 – and what a journey it’s been! We took a huge step back this year on the blog since we just don’t have the time to dedicate to it as we once did. But it will always be our #1 love and something we are so proud of.

2014 Part 1: Graduating from Cal State Long BeachReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationIt took us 5 years to get our Bachelor’s Degrees (3 years at a JC and 2 at CSULB). We worked full-time the entire two years we went to Long Beach. We had off on Tuesdays and Thursdays and would drive from North County San Diego where we lived 80 miles to Logn Beach twice a week – FOR TWO YEARS. Looking back, we don’t know how we did it. But to say we were proud of ourselves for working tirelessly to get graduate is an understatement. This proved to us we could do anything (we also paid for school ourselves, some loans we are still paying off but such is life!).

2014 Part 2: Made the move from SD to LA

Part two of graduating was deciding where to move. We knew after five years in San Diego that we needed to make a change. For the better part of our SD lives, we thought we would move to NYC. But after much thought, we decided on somewhere closer: Los Angeles.

To be honest, we weren’t huge fans of LA when we made day trips to visit. We always had fun going out and visiting friends but couldn’t see ourselves living there. Nonetheless, we got entry-level, part-time jobs at an entertainment news YouTube channel that we knew would be a good stepping stone if we wanted to stay in a journalism type job but transition to entertainment news.

Five years later and we love LA and it just feels like our forever home. We don’t 100% know where we will end up but this is a good lesson that first impressions aren’t everything!

2015: Our NYC Trips with our SOsReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationWe each took separate anniversary trips with our boyfriends in 2015. If you can’t tell by now, we love NYC so these were of course highs of the year! Favorite memory from my (Carli’s) trip was walking the Brooklyn bridge back to the city after Thanksgiving dinner and there was not a single soul in sight the whole walk. It was pure magic – I don’t think I’ll ever see the bridge that empty again.

2016: Chay + Doug’s wedding in Punta CanaReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationOur aforementioned bff Chay married her person in the Dominican Republic and it was so special. It was a destination wedding so there were only about 30 people there which made the trip even better. It was such a fun, loving group of people. Of course, the best part of the trip was standing by our girl’s side watching her marry the man of her dreams!

2017: Adopted Little LunaReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationThis was the year we adopted our first little puppy child, Luna! She is crazy and wonderful and we couldn’t love her more if we tried.

2018 Part 1: Adopted Terry Boy!Reflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationWe couldn’t last long with just one dog child – so we adopted sweet Terry in 2018. He’s so much more affectionate and quiet than Luna, he rounds out our family perfectly.

2018 Part 2: Jenny & Jame’s Wedding Reflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationOne of our best friend’s Jenny married her long-time love James in the sweetest wedding back home in Wisconsin. She was the first from our close-knit group to get married so it was extra emotional for all of us. We had a sleepover altogether the night before and spent the entire morning getting ready, chatting and laughing as we all do. It’s a fond memory we will always cherish. The wedding was a blast too – it even included the bride’s bouquet starting on fire!

2019 Part 1: Lanched Dyad CandleReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationThis should come as no surprise if you follow us but we achieved our life-long goal of starting a business together. We launched our luxury candle line, Dyad Candle, on 8/23/19. It was a surreal feeling (and still is) to have a product and business all our own. We worked hard for a year and a half before we launched. We saved up all the money ourselves to start this and we couldn’t be happier we are on this entrepreneurial journey together. Can’t wait to see how our business grows in 2020!

2019 Part 2: Alyssa & Max’s Wedding in NashvilleReflecting On This Decade | TwinspirationWe can’t leave out our best friend’s wedding! The two of us and Alyssa have been obsessed with weddings for as long as we can remember. In high school, instead of going out and having traditional fun, we would go to Barnes and Noble and read wedding magazines and just dream of our own. Watching her marry the love of her life was pure magic – our hearts were exploding with love for the two of them the entire day (and trip).

To make the wedding even better, they decided to have a destination wedding in Nashville so we all go to be together on this mini-vacation which made it even more special.

Of course, this decade was also filled with plenty of lows but we like to focus on the positives when going into the new year. It is good to appreciate the lows because they make the highs so much sweeter.

Hope 2020 is good to you all – we have a feeling it’s going to be one for the books. 

xx B&C