Best of 2022

It’s always a treat taking a trip down memory lane, remembering the highlights of each year as I reread my “Best of” posts that get published each New Year’s Eve. There is nothing more special to me than having all of these milestones documented on camera, written from the heart.

2022 was an exceptional year. It dealt me a hand so good that there were many days I found myself thinking “I can’t possibly deserve this life”.

And believe me, I know it’s cheesy, but day after day I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. It is so clear to me that this year, God has me exactly where I was meant to be. It is the most overwhelming feeling in the world—to be loved like this. To be supported like this. It’s a feeling I pray sticks around a little while longer.

As always, I spent January 1st ringing in the New Year, celebrating year 6 of Styled by McKenz—it’s hard to believe how quickly the years have flown! The next day I hopped on a plane and flew to Hawaii for my first trip of the year. It felt so surreal to be there with my best friend, Sam. We spent two weeks swimming in the bluest water, exploring the prettiest mountains, and eating the best food. Thirty trips later and I can still say this was one of my favorites of 2022.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and by mid-month I hopped in the car to begin my final semester in Kent, Ohio. I was greeted with two feet of snow and a day off of school… little did I know this was going to be the start of a very brutal winter. Although the weeks still seemed to fly by, each one full of more laughs than the last. As I completed the brunt of the courses in my Fashion Merchandising degree I found my free moments consumed with Monday night karaoke, endless couch time, and a lot of nights out.

There is something so special about missing a moment before it’s truly gone. I did a lot of that this year. There were so many days in those early months that I just wanted to freeze time—to hold onto these people, that place, a little while longer. We ate hangover hashbrowns from Mcdonald’s each Friday, walked miles along the river, and went to Dairy Queen so much that the drive-through worker knew to give me extra brownies in my blizzard.

I’ve never felt more at home.

hanging onto these people

Too soon the weeks had slipped away and suddenly I was met with some of the hardest goodbyes. I spent my last week doing all of the things—grieving a version of me I was not ready to leave behind. We ate one last shitty omelet in the dining hall. We knocked on our bedroom door in our freshman-year dorm and gave our love to the girls living there now. We popped champagne in front of the fashion school. I packed my car and squeezed my people.

I wasn’t dying. But some days, in that last week, it really did feel like it.

My heart ached in a way it’s never felt before. I realized then that I’d never loved someone or something as much as I loved the home I’d built there. How lucky am I?

California girl at heart.

However there was no time to mourn that chapter, the next page was turning just days later. I packed my bags once again, this time hopping on a plane to LAX. I moved into a three-bedroom apartment in Beverly Hills, California for the summer, living with two of my best content-creating friends. Within a day I had all of my furniture built and swimsuits tucked away. I turned 21 and although I was hundreds of miles from what felt like the “rest of the world” I felt so surrounded by love. My roommates surprised me with balloons and shooters. We drank champagne as I bought my first designer bag and rode the ferris wheel at Santa Monica Pier. It was a good day.

In June I began my summer internship that I was completing for school credit—a requirement for graduation.

In the mornings I’d spend my hours editing vlogs and writing blog posts. I signed with a manager just two weeks after moving with an agency called Lola&Ivy. It was a business decision I had been waiting until 2023 to pursue but I found a girl Chloe who just felt right. My dad and I decided if I wasn’t ready to take this next step, the opportunity simply wouldn’t have presented itself. We were right.

I worked in a little shoe store in Hermosa Beach, Details. My “aunt” Tiff owned the small store and welcomed me with open arms, showing me the ins and outs of buying, retail, and social media. But more importantly, showing me that home is not a place, it’s also a person. She was the only family I had and yet she felt like all I needed; she became my very best friend.

After I’d get off of work I’d change into a bathing suit and head down to the beach, just a five-minute walk away and spend a few hours reading while the sun slipped behind the coastline. Then, after I’d avoided the LA rush hour, I’d drive back home to my apartment. I’d spend my evenings making dinner with my roommates, and walking around Rodeo Drive which was now my backyard. We ate ice cream out of the carton. We bitched about our leaking air conditioner that didn’t work half the time. And we unboxed dozens of packages. Our neighbors hated us for the never-ending pile we had at the front door.

the happiest I’ve ever been

And suddenly I wondered why I spent so many of those spring nights worried about this chapter of life. It was turning out to be the very best one. I’ve never felt so myself, so creatively energized. It was so clear to me that this was where I was meant to be that summer.

In my last days in California, my appendix decided it needed to be removed… I flew home just two days after surgery with my bags all packed and the fullest heart I ever imagined. After a couple of weeks in Maryland packing and spending time with my family, I flew to Florence, Italy to begin my senior year, my final semester, studying abroad.

first day in Italy with my lifelines. 

I was more nervous about this chapter than the last and I’ll be the first to admit, it took me quite a bit of time to adjust. About four weeks in, struggling to process that I was really living in a different country, a very special person told me that I had the world right in front of me—run with it. Something in me changed that day, a switch completely flipped; I don’t think I’ll ever look at my world the same way again.

Life abroad started feeling less foreign and more like my new normal. When I really looked at it for what it was, I realized that life wasn’t all that different—I was still going to class, still rooming with the same friends, still making the same meals. Things started falling into place and suddenly I had every single weekend booked and busy with travel. And not just any travel, free travel, that I worked so very hard for. Partnering with travel agencies and hotels in Europe was my greatest joy, a reminder that all of my tireless nights typing away, were paying off.

I could be great. And I could be great in more than just the US. It’s a feeling I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

my happiest days abroad.

I spent my weekdays going to class and my weekends hopping on planes, trains, and automobiles. And I got to see the world with my very best friends, the same ones I met on my very first day at Kent State. We had mouth-watering risotto in the Amalfi Coast, rode gondolas in Venice, ATVd in Morocco, sat in cable cars in Switzerland, swam in the bluest water in Mykonos, and drank champagne at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I felt alive, like maybe this is what life really is all about.

Week after week, I was reminded that I had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in front of me. And so I ran with it.

It felt good to run. It felt freeing to run.

I won’t lie, I’ve never done less school work in my life than during this final semester. I was taking all electives so my courseload was pretty much nonexistent. Thank God, I was working my butt off to meet Styledby deadlines and scrambling to pack for my next trips. But despite hardly having homework, I think I learned more in my four months in Europe than in the rest of my life combined.

our best adventure yet.

I learned that home is all around. It’s in the roommates that have grown up with me all four years of college. It’s in the friends calling me while I made dinner as they were just now making lunch. It’s in the gelato man down the street who knew my order before I’d even told him. It’s in Country Roads blaring over the grocery store speakers as I shopped each Sunday.

I learned that home is where the heart is, and I left a piece of my heart in Kent. But also in California. And soon I’d leave one in Florence too. I learned that my heart can be in a lot of places at once. What a privilege that is, what a privilege it is to be able to love like that.

And I learned that God places us in these moments at the right time. It was undeniable. I felt it in my bones. I prayed for it night after night.

Twelve countries and a lifetime of memories later, that dumpy apartment felt like home too and I found myself fighting tears as I packed my suitcases for what felt like the millionth time that year. This time there was an eagerness to my now rhythm. We had done it—we’d completed our final assignments, handed in our last exams, and gone to our very last classes. It sounds stupid but there was a moment, where for a split second, it felt like I conquered the world. That maybe, just maybe, I’d done everything I set out to do this year and then some.

our final hoorah. we did it…

Three brutal flights later we landed safe and sound in Kent, Ohio. As I sat in the car on my way home from the airport Rocco asked how it felt to be back and my answer was simple—”it feels like I just got a piece of my heart back, it feels like I’m home”. I graduated that weekend with a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising from Kent State University in 3.5 years. We celebrated. We cried.

I also learned that love this big hurts. Aches. But my friends remind me that it’s not a goodbye, it really is just a see you later. Why does it feel like I’m the only one processing these emotions, these changes so deeply? Sometimes I feel like we’re all going through the same things but I’m the only one really feeling them.

My mom tells me I’m dramatic, Dad tells me I’m thinking about it too much.

home is wherever I’m with you.

I’ve spent my last two weeks of 2022 having a bit of “reverse” culture shock as I adjust back to life in the US. I’ve spent slow mornings scrolling, grateful to be in my own bed and to have a ceiling fan again. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I kind of missed my parents nagging me about my empty water cup being left on the living room table; it has felt so good to be home. To really be home, home.

The more places I go, the more I realize there really is nowhere like it.

I find myself at a bit of a crossroad now. The “world is mine” as many people keep reminding me and I recognize what a privilege it is to be faced with that sort of freedom. I haven’t quite decided what I should do with it yet, but I do know I’ll be letting you know once I do. Thank you, endlessly, for your love and outward support this year. It has meant more to me than ever before as I navigate these huge life changes.

I pray 2023 brings as many plane tickets and as many opportunities as this year did. I know if I experience even a fraction of it, I really will be the luckiest girl in the world.

All my love (from all over), McKenz

Best of 2016 // Best of 2017 // Best of 2018 // Best of 2019 // Best of 2020 // Best of 2021