The first two weeks of June, I was drowning in work (because I was trying to get ahead so I could take off work during the last two weeks of the month). I wrote lots of science-heavy healthcare articles (including covering ASCO), and conducted lots (LOTS) of interviews for those articles. Beyond that, I didn’t do much. I did perform at Sing & Strum! And I spent time with my family for some holidays and birthdays.

Also, Ari got her wedding pictures back, so here are a few of those since I haven’t posted them on my blog yet (she was a STUNNING LOVELY GORGEOUS bride):

During the latter half of June, I took a 10-day trip to Charleston, South Carolina for the Oley Conference and then for a girls’ trip. I’d never been to Charleston before, but it’s now a city that I will always think of so fondly. Before I left for my trip, I wrote in my journal that I had this weird, unshakeable feeling that the trip was going to somehow change my life. And it absolutely did–in so many ways, that were both specific and more abstract.

If I attempted to share every single thing that I was fortunate enough to experience on this trip, this blog post would be the length of a novel! But here is a brief (?) summary. (Believe it or not, I’m only giving you the bare minimum of the photos I/we took. Our shared album for the girls’ trip had over 1,000 photos in it. So it could be much worse. Wink, wink.).

First up was the Oley Conference! It was my first year attending. Sponsored by the Oley Foundation, the Oley Conference is a huge annual event for people who are on home nutrition support (either tube feeding or TPN) and the professionals who support them (clinicians, dietitians, etc.). For me, it was both work and play: I networked with the professionals that were there (I met one of my clients in person for the first time, and I’m now working on a project for a new client whom I connected with at the conference); I learned SO much from the academic sessions that I can apply to both my career and to my personal medical care; and of course, I made so many great friendships and relationships (mostly with fellow tubies in their 20s, whom I’m still texting with multiple times a week, two months later).

Until the conference, I had never met anyone else in person who also had a feeding tube (and I’d been tube-fed for four years). And then to walk into a room filled with hundreds of people who also had feeding tubes? There’s no way I can describe that feeling. The conference was a week full of long, exhausting days that I pushed and pushed myself through. But it was all more than worth it to sit outside with these new friends–people we had just met this week but we immediately just got each other–and laugh and talk and not want to end the night to walk back to our hotel.

Meeting someone who invited me to tour the Norris Lab at MUSC, which specifically researches Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, while I was in town (separately from the conference) was the cherry on top. This summer was ten years since I first got really sick (although for many years after that, we still didn’t have clear diagnoses). To think back over the years, and then to now, a decade later, be touring the Norris Lab–meeting the patient-scientists I’ve looked up to for so long, observing how the lab accommodates their physical needs (which are obviously extremely similar to mine), seeing with my own eyes the visible evidences of the work being done to help people just like me? I was tearing up as I was walking through the lab and engaging in conversation about their current research.

I truly don’t have words for what my week at the Oley Conference–almost exactly four years after I first got my feeding tube–meant to me. Night two of the conference, I found myself starting to cry as I told someone, “It’s so much more than I could ask for.” This is just a small glimpse. You can also watch the official recap video of the Oley Conference–I appear several times, but mostly near the end, during karaoke night.

After the conference, Grace Anne and Michelle came into town, and we spent the best four days together having a long overdue girls’ trip! Our Airbnb was a little townhouse in the Daniel’s Island area. We hung out at the pool talking late into the night almost every evening.

We had a shopping day on King Street, and I bought far too many stickers and records and books. (I may or may not have also had to pay an additional $100 oversize luggage fee flying home because all of those books made my suitcase so heavy.) We’d scoped out all of the coffee shops and stationery shops ahead of time!

Another day, we drove to Folly Beach and set up an umbrella near the water… too near the water, apparently, because we spent the next five hours moving the umbrella further back up the beach. I swear, we must have moved that thing half a dozen times. At some point, though, we were in one place long enough for me to fall asleep (under said umbrella, wearing sunscreen) and get a truly fantastical sunburn line featuring the KT tape on my hip. (I still have a tan line from it, two months later.) But this was the first time I’d been to any beach/ocean in almost three years, and it was so nice to be at the water.

“You’re young! Have fun! Take the beach trip with friends!” — older lady taking pictures of us on the beach

I had decided to get a (somewhat) spontaneous tattoo. It was something I’d already been thinking about getting this summer–a delicate lily of the valley on my shoulder to represent God’s provision. But as the trip was coming to a close, I thought it would be extra meaningful to get the tattoo before leaving Charleston, since God had reminded me of His faithfulness through this trip in so many specific ways. So I found a tattoo shop on Reddit (lol) and we went straight from the beach to get my tattoo. I absolutely love the tattoo itself and its meaning, and I love the memory and the story of getting it on our last night in Charleston.

After I got my tattoo, we drove to Sullivan’s Island for a late dinner, and finished changing and getting ready in the car while we waited for our table. They seated us outside and it was the most perfect small-beach-town feel you could imagine.

We also at least briefly hit most of the major downtown Charleston tourist spots, like Rainbow Row, the pineapple fountain, City Market, etc. I really loved the French Huguenot Church, too. But man, it was HOT in Charleston while I was there and I was dying!!!

Overall it was just the best best time. There’s nothing like a girls’ trip and Charleston turned out to be the perfect place for it (I was also very glad to finally see something other than the inside of the hotel convention center, lol). It was SO good to spend time with Grace Anne and Michelle, and we made the absolute sweetest memories! Michelle and I were also completely randomly seated next to each other on our flight back to Atlanta–how the heck does that happen??!

Then I pretty much slept for the rest of the month after getting home. Really–quite literally. Someone said “you look so happy and healthy!” and I was like… well, I’m happy, but the healthy part is probably because I have been asleep for four days straight.

June 2025 changed me and changed my life. I am so thankful I was able to take my Charleston trip. All of it was exactly everything I’ve ever wanted. I listened to tethered and cried the whole flight home, and now, I smile every time I think of anything related to the trip. Those 10 days were a precious gift and I will be forever thankful for them.

This month I’m…

Reading: Freewater, Amina Luqman-Dawson. Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry. What I Carry, Jennifer Longo. We Were Liars and Family of Liars, E. Lockhart (both rereads). The Firefly Summer, Morgan Matson (reread). The One and Only Bob, Katherine Applegate. (again, only 7 total… but to be fair, it was a BUSYYY month)

Listening to: Oh my gosh, I listened to so much good music this month. My summer 2025 playlist. The new Head & The Heart album. Ben Rector’s new album. Boop! Our making it out of the group chat playlist. Mac Miller’s Circles album.

Watching: YouTube–Emma Pittman.

Writing: Not much happened in this category in June. The first two weeks of the month, I was busy working. And the second two weeks, I was busy having new experiences. And that’s okay! That’s good! I came home from Charleston feeling inspired in so many ways–full of musical snippets, and itching to junk journal, and motivated to dive back into writing projects. If you don’t take time to live, you won’t have anything to create about.

Grateful for: A friend/leader reaching an important anniversary and being in a much better place. Strawberry cake. A friend’s brand of humor that’s the exact same as mine. My petunias reviving after a near-death experience. A whimsical handmade CPAP cover that a friend sent me. Several high-paying assignments from a client lined up for when I get back in town. Blackberry matcha. Screaming about the TSITP trailer in the group chat. The STUNNING daylilies in the library garden. A client check arriving in the mail before I left for my trip. Being in a new city by myself–my favorite thing! Grabbing all the stickers with a new friend for our junk journals. Learning so many fascinating things. Connecting with a fellow believer. Decompressing with old friends. Bookstores, scones, cute windows. Constant laughter and inside jokes. Seeing the ocean for the first time in years. Meaningful/cool clients. So many good library books to read. Writing a song that I LOVE? Starting a new TV show. All of it, all of it, all of it.

I don’t even want to think about how many hours it took me to compile this blog post, but I’m just glad it’s finally done and posted. Whew! Anyway… what did you do in June (if you can even remember by now lol)? Have you been to Charleston before?