The reading vacation you didn’t know you needed!
In October 2022, after 10 years of only reading personal growth + professional/business books, I decided to jump back into fiction and it was like coming home! 🥰 You know that feeling? The feeling when something just feels so right like the moment you get into bed and pull the covers up after a long day or taking a bite of your favorite dessert… that feeling!
I was curled up in my favorite blanket on my couch on a rainy fall day while my daughter was at daycare and it was heavenly! I started reading ‘People We Meet On Vacation‘ by Emily Henry and literally did not want to put it down. I’m not kidding. I was slightly annoyed I had to stop reading to go pick up my daughter and spend time with my family until bedtime when I could FINALLY pick up the book again! 🙌
DISCLAIMER: I love my family so dang much; they’re my everything! But let’s be honest, being a parent is exhausting. If you haven’t had that feeling I just described then you might be an alien…just kidding!
So after I devoured that book, I couldn’t stop. I read every Emily Henry book and then dove head first into everyone’s recommendations, reacquainting myself with my fav genres like mystery, autobiographies, romance, and even fantasy (looking at you ACOTAR 😉).
And now we’ll fast forward to February of 2023 because the following 4 months were mainly just me reading at every free moment I had. I totally scared my husband who didn’t realize what I meant when I said I can ‘get lost in books.’ (Sorry Eric! LOL 🤪)
One day I saw a meme on Instagram that proposed the idea of a girls weekend away to just silently read – what a dream, right? I immediately sent it to a bunch of my friends with the message: “Let’s seriously do this. I already have ideas where we’ll go and here’s the weekend I’m thinking of. You in?” I got so many YES responses and then some no’s from people who weren’t free that weekend and were MAD about it! They wanted me to tell them when I was going to do another one… light bulb moment! 💡
If all my friends want to get away to read so badly, there must be others who want to, too! The world is in need of a reading vacation 🤩
I couldn’t stop thinking about this idea, it was truly consuming my thoughts and my creative wheels were turning. I came home from picking up my daughter at my parents house, having spent the entire car ride thinking this idea thru, and word vomited all my thoughts onto Eric. 🤣 And just like the amazing and supportive husband that he is, he said, ‘if you’re this excited about it, do it!‘
He was right, I WAS excited and felt a spark of passion that I hadn’t felt for a few years. I didn’t want to lose it! ✨ I had been praying for guidance and discernment over my next steps in life and work and this felt like a clear path to follow!
I decided to enroll two of my besties – Amy and Dani – into the vision. They helped me host our very first book·cation just 4 months later! (Here we are right before our guests arrived! Don’t worry, my drink is a mocktail since I was 5 months pregnant with my son🤰)
I’m so grateful for all the friends I shared this dream with at the beginning. It was met with so much love and excitement that fueled my spark even more! It’s amazing what can happen in 18 months when you allow yourself to dream. Look what it’s grown into! 💕
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