by A lot has happened since the last time I published a blog (has it seriously been almost three years??) but I am back! I’d really love to get back to a regular writing practice and strike a good balance between routine but also flexibility (because as the last three years have shown, you know, life happens).
Moving forward, I intend to use this space as a combination of the type of online journal-esque content most of my readers are probably familiar with, but also integrate some more content related to my professional life, like case studies on projects I’m really proud of and general musings on what it’s like to be a young woman professional.
But before I get to work on some of the fun ideas I’ve had floating around for content, let’s talk about what I’ve been up to! Here are some of the highlights:
I started teaching yoga again.
Literally the week before COVID reached pandemic status, I left teaching at the yoga studio where I got my 200-hour certification and where I had been practicing since I was a college student. I had intended to take a bit of a hiatus, reconnect with my practice, and look at teaching elsewhere…and then everything changed.
In January 2020, I started practicing at the studio just down the street from my then-office, Peoples Yoga. In the short time I was able to practice in-studio, I felt so drawn to the community and practice style there that I knew it was where I was meant to take my teaching next.
I had originally planned to wait until COVID “blew over in a month or two,” but once it became obvious that was not going to happen, I started teaching virtually with the studio in July 2020 until in-person and Zoom hybrid classes began toward the end of the year.
I got engaged…
Rigo proposed in August of 2020 during our trip to Mackinac Island!! I was so legitimately surprised because he worked very hard to throw me off the trail (and it worked). So well in fact that I thought he was messing with me so the first thing I said was a joking “I hate you.”
Once I realized he was serious (about .1 seconds before the photo to the right), the waterworks were basically immediate and I of course said yes.
I knew shortly after Rigo and I started dating that he was the man I was going to marry, and there have been so many moments over the course of our relationship that reinforced the knowledge that we were meant to be each others’. But I remember specifically a moment toward the beginning of the pandemic when we were making dinner together after a long work day (the first of many long days for me working remote).
He turned to me, unprompted, and just said, “This whole situation has reminded me just how much I like our life and like building it with you.” And that’s really the core of our partnership. Being human is hard, and being in relationships (of any kind) is hard. But as long as you like the life you’re growing toward and like who you’re growing with, you’re going to be just fine.
…and I got married!
We got married on October 9, 2021! We were very fortunate to have a celebration like what we envisioned, thanks in large part to that calm moment of low caseload just before the Delta variant rose to prominence and thanks to the new, widespread availability of vaccines. Looking back on 2021 is such a generally-joyful time capsule of all the things that went into planning and experiencing our wedding.
I might do a whole post on the planning process because it was truly so much fun. It really reinforced my love of project management and gave us the opportunity to connect with so much joy and personality while creating a day that authentically celebrated us while being a fantastic experience for our loved ones.
Wedding photos by Shonda Michelson Photography
I got promoted.
The same week I came back to work from our wedding, we learned the director of entrepreneurial programming was leaving and I was given the opportunity to step in and take on a greater leadership and decision-making role. It was really difficult to move away from marketing and communications, which has always been my first love, but being part of a small organization I recognized that this was one of the only true opportunities for growth I would probably have.
During the year(ish) I was in the role, I significantly expanded my skills in project management, program design, data analysis and data storytelling, and leadership. You can hop over to my resume page to see some of the specific, measurable accomplishments I’m proudest of from my time in this role!
We went to Cancun!
Rigo and I opted for a little time between our wedding and our honeymoon, partially to give ourselves space to budget and partially to see what COVID had in store next.
We went to Cancun in May 2022 for our first ever all-inclusive resort experience and let me tell you…there is nothing quite like it. I felt like I was living in the epitome of luxury for the week we spent there!
We bought a house!
In September 2022, we bought a house! Before we got engaged, we had originally discussed house hunting to move at the end of our lease in February 2021. Because we wanted to get married in 2021, we opted to renew for another year through 2022 with the intent to move around the time our lease would be up in February 2023.
We got preapproved for a mortgage in July 2022 to lock in a decent interest rate through the fall and not two weeks after we got the signed preapproval letter from our lender, we found our house! Everything felt like it aligned perfectly between the timing of our preapproval, being able to get the house under asking, and moving in just around one month before our first anniversary.
Homeownership has been a big adjustment (mostly because when something breaks, you can’t call the landlord…you are the landlord!) but it has overall been so much fun to begin building our first true home together. We even won the Menard’s project of the month in November for our renovation of our fireplace!
I got let go.
One of the less-fun updates from the last few years was getting let go from my job in January 2023 (a week before my birthday). My role’s work was consolidated with another position within the equitable economic development team and it didn’t make sense to have two roles doing such similar work amid the organizational restructure and heighted focus on business attraction and megasite development.
It was definitely a shock and disappointment to have four years’ worth of professional growth and dedicated performance end the way it did, but it was also a really important opportunity to reset from some burnout and also refocus on my desires for a professional environment and my career moving forward. Stay tuned for (hopefully) forthcoming updates on my next professional adventure!
I completed my 300-hour yoga teacher training!
When I started teaching at Peoples Yoga in 2020, I realized there were a lot of gaps in my teaching knowledge as it was and where I wanted to be as a teacher. I had originally planned to complete my YTT 300 certification in 2021, but that was another thing that got put on pause while we prioritized our wedding financially and mentally!
It’s hard to overstate the gift of this training. Juggling coursework and homeownership (we closed on our house literally one week before training began) felt at times impossible, but having a good partner at home and a flexible mentor and teacher at the studio helped make things a little easier.
I have felt completely transformed as a teacher in the best way, and I have an even stronger tie to the community that welcomed and helped heal me during a time when my practice needed it most. And equally important, I have finally reconnected with a regular practice as a student after struggling since the onset of COVID to find a routine that felt nourishing and sustainable for me.
I’ll probably also make a whole post specifically about this training and its impact on me as a human, yoga student, and yoga teacher.
And now, it’s almost May 2023!
Looking back on what’s happened between my last post and today…holy shit! It feels like I’ve lived a whole lifetime’s worth of excitement, growth, and change. I know the rest of 2023 holds a lot of yet to be known change, and I’m doing my best to embrace the openness and excitement that can come with the unknown (and not just the anxiety of wanting to know everything right now :P).
Stay tuned! There’s a lot more to come, and I’m excited to share it with you.
Katlyn Cardoso 
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