The older I get, the more the calendar feels less like a clock and more like a score sheet. Little boxes holding big lessons. Five frames, five moments that stitched this year together and quietly steered who I am becoming. My word of the year was Flourish, and somehow it showed up everywhere: in the lanes, in the kitchen of a new restaurant, in the weight room with my son, in the eyes of a girl figuring out who she is. Growth was steady this year. Earned. Honest.

So here are the five frames that shaped me.

Frame 1: The Quiet Validation of Two 300s

This year I bowled two 300s on tour. I almost had three. Three honor scores in two weeks still feels unreal.
But the numbers are not the part that stayed with me. It was what they revealed.

I am not bowling full-time. I am not living on the lanes the way I once did. Yet in those moments, with pressure tightening and everything narrowing down to breath and mechanics, I proved to myself that I can still repeat shots. I can still rise to the moment. I can still access that version of me.

This frame was not about perfection. It was about identity. A reminder that certain parts of who we are do not fade. They wait for us to step back into them.

Frame 2: Nebraska, Hall of Fame, and a Full-Circle Heartbeat

Walking into the Hall of Fame ceremony at Nebraska felt like stepping back into a version of myself I had not visited in a long time. Halloween night. My family beside me. Recognition alongside athletes from volleyball, football, gymnastics. Performers who carved their own legends.

It was not nostalgia. It was gratitude.
A look how far that 18-year-old kid has come moment.

College is where my competitive spine was built. That honor did not just celebrate what I did. It honored who I became because of it.

Frame 3: Ox Bar & Hearth and a Story That Has Been Marinating for Decades

Watching Ox Bar & Hearth come to life became one of my quiet joys this year. It is John and Alain’s dream, but I have loved watching its arc unfold. The kind of story that began long before the first plate ever hit a table.

In the early 2000s they were two young cooks working as externs for Grant Achatz at Trio. Working for free. Learning under pressure before Alinea even existed. That is the part most people never see. The long grind before the spotlight.

Seeing the restaurant open now reminds me that every dream has a root system. Flourishing often looks like patience, resilience, and a little bit of madness.

Frame 4: Madden and the Hunger You Cannot Teach

This year I watched Madden fall in love with the work. Not the games or the trophies. The work.

If he was not in baseball season, he was in the gym. Every day. Getting stronger and quicker and more intentional.
There is a self-motivation in him that cannot be coached, bribed, or faked. He already understands that nothing is free.

Watching his discipline lit something in me. Hunger like that is contagious. It reminds me what it looks like to own your path instead of hoping it opens for you.

Frame 5: Jersey Becoming Herself

This year I watched Jersey begin to figure out who she is. Not in dramatic declarations, but in quiet choices. Little moments when she would say, No, that is not me, even when everyone else was chasing a trend. That kind of refusal to bend is identity forming in real time.

And then there is her bowling. I saw a flicker this year. A light that said, Maybe I could really do this. The kind of spark that makes you stand a little taller.

Watching her grow feels like watching a seed crack open. Slow. Subtle. Powerful.

Why These Frames?

Because they were not just moments. They were mirrors.
Each one reflected a value that matters to me.

Mastery. Legacy. Patience. Discipline. Identity.

These were the places where I saw my word of the year come alive. Flourish did not show up all at once. It showed up in dozens of tiny ways that eventually formed a pattern.

Beyond the Lanes

Every one of these lessons translates into life.

Repetition and composure matter in any high-pressure environment.
Remembering where you came from strengthens where you are going.
Long-term dreams require long-term roots.
Success favors people who show up daily without applause.
And becoming yourself is the most courageous performance of all.

Bowling has always been my classroom. Life is where the homework appears.

If I Had to Choose One

I cannot.
And honestly, I do not want to.

Each frame holds a different piece of my heart: the competitor, the teammate, the mother, the storyteller, the woman still growing. They matter because together they make up the full game.

If this year taught me anything, it is that flourishing never comes from a single moment. It comes frame by frame.