Bella Scipione

Dec 19 2023

Hello and happy holidays from Bella’s Blogs to you!! It’s hard to believe 2023 is coming to an end and as I reflect on all that this year has brought me, I am completely overwhelmed with gratitude. In 2023, I traveled to eight different countries, five different states, and three different continents. I fell in love once, spent hours laughing with friends (old and new), and continued to be in complete awe of the world around me. As quick as the year has seemed to have gone by, it’s the little moments I remember most, the moments where I took the time to sit, observe, and embrace what was right in front of me. I decided to write a 2023 year in review as an ode to each of my adventures, but also in celebration of the loved ones around me. So here’s a cheers to every person who made this year unforgettable.

I apologize in advance for this long love letter, it’s been an exciting year!

I rang in the new year with my best friend, Matthew and his cousins at Decadence, downtown Denver. We spent the 31st dancing the night away and enjoying some of our all time favorite artists perform. New Years day followed by a mad hangover and delicious brunch provided by Justin and his family. Just days later, G and I were off to our adventure down under to explore Australia and reconnect with our infamous Aussie mates. I won’t speak too much on our travels, as I have already shared all about them, but Australia was most definitely the perfect place to kick off 2023 and all the joy that it had in store. Mom and Dad ended the month in Mexico for Mom’s birthday, always taking the time to be with one another and set an example for the rest of us of what true love looks like.

February is what can be referred to as ‘cuffed’ month given me and my two best girl friends, Lindsey and Mandy, spent most of it hanging out with our boyfriends. We did our best to make our boyfriends besties too, but considering all of our relationships ended by the end of this year, that clearly did not go as planned. However, I speak for all of us when I say there are no regrets and we appreciate all that our boys did for us for the time we were with them. A special shoutout to Mom for receiving her certification as a psychedelic-assisted therapy provider earlier this month too!

On Valentine’s day I received my acceptance letter from King’s College London, and spent the day crying tears of joy at P.F. Chang’s, texting everyone I knew the good news. I was sent home from work early that day, because I was clearly incapable of doing my job up to Chang’s standards. I ended up quitting weeks later to work for a different corporate chain restaurant, but this time it was Mexican food, and I was pretty frickin’ stoked to be whippin’ up margaritas. Plus let’s be so for real, it was time for my two year-long Chang’s era to come to an end anyway.

We spent Lindsey’s 23rd birthday at the Gimme Gimme Disco, celebrating the angel that she is. Justin and I ended the month with a late Valentine’s day celebration up at Black Hawk, Colorado, working the black jack tables and scamming the slot machines. I walked out of the casino with $1000 cash on hand, thanks to those little Asian drums that busted across my screen at 1 in the morning.

March was a busy month with trips to San Diego and Chicago with my best college friends. G turned 19 and my dog Bonnie was spoiled with her 3rd annual gotcha day. Stella, Eric, Sarah, Matthew and I met up in San Diego for a music festival for Sarah and Stella’s senior spring break. Our favorite artist, Odesza, headlined the show, and we spent the hours leading up to it with bottomless mimosas and walks along San Diego’s beautiful beach towns. I ended up losing my wallet and ID at the festival, and to this day never got it replaced (oops, sorry, Dad).

I continued working as a bartender at both Hacienda and Blackstone Country Club, and although I complained about both jobs almost every shift via my Snapchat story, I am thankful for the friendships and connections that it gave me. A member at Blackstone gifted me two free tickets to the March Madness game that was held at the Ball Arena in Denver. My Dad and I enjoyed our seats, watching Creighton go head to head with Baylor, eventually advancing on to the Sweet 16.

March ended with a trip to Chicago, with my 20 best college friends (Handshake). It was a bittersweet weekend, as we grieved the one year anniversary loss of our sweet Mary Kate. The 20 of us traveled from seven different states to come together and celebrate the life of our beautiful friend. This had to be the highlight of my 2023, and I am forever grateful that I have friends who can come together despite all of our busy schedules to laugh, love, and cry with one another. The weekend began with another big Creighton win against Princeton, taking us to the Elite 8, but unfortunately ended with a devastating loss against San Diego State (that I still believe, was rigged).

April was a relatively quiet month on my end, but the rest of the Scipione’s got some good travel time in. G and I enjoyed Dom Dolla at Red Rocks, aka one of our most favorite Aussie performers. However, we did spend the second half of the show sitting in my car and enjoying from afar, because we both became extremely overstimulated and had to come back down to reality. Mom and Dad celebrated Dad’s birthday with a trip to Roatan and Dom and Joseph visited our Aunt Tiffanie in Sacramento.

May was filled with celebrations. Dom graduated from High School with his high school diploma and associate’s degree. At only 17, Dom had finished his high school courses with flying colors, was accepted to Creighton with multiple scholarships, and had an associate’s degree and college credits under his belt. I will always admire Dom for his strong work ethic and thrill to achieve his greatest goals, no matter what challenges may come his way.

I headed back to Omaha a few weeks later to be with Stella, Sarah, and Grace on their big graduation day. Both Stella and Sarah are now kick ass BSN, RN’s, working as nurses in Chicago and Omaha, while Grace works in Seattle as a Territory Manager. Molly and Eric were also about to begin PA school in Milwaukee, WI, so there was much celebrations to be had. More of Handshake made the trip to Omaha to congratulate all of our brilliant friends and their grandest new achievements. Sometimes, I still can’t believe I spent four years living in Nebraska, but I will never miss an opportunity to go back to those cornhusker roots.

Summer started as a newly single Bella, preparing for a season full of work and enjoying time with friends and family before heading across the pond. I headed back to San Diego, to visit with Sadie, one of my best friends from middle school. Sadie and I have been friends since we were awkward little 12 year olds, sitting in science class, sharing our love for softball, and planning movie dates to the theater to see Pitch Perfect, and other great hits of 2012.

Christian turned 31 on June 7th and began making plans to come back from Vietnam to the US to introduce us to the love of his life, Meo Meo. He is working as an English teacher in Ho Chi Minh, and has received numerous teaching awards. We are so proud of him. G also got boo’d up with her boyfriend, Will, and I lived vicariously through both of their love lives, sitting by the pool and floating on my pineapple floaty. The end of June was spent dressed up in rainbow and glitter at Denver’s Pride parade. There will never be a time where I pass up a chance to dress up and strut downtown with all the girls, gays, and theys. Love will always conquer hate.

July quickly crept up on us, marking the beginning of the second half of our crazy year. It’s Cancer season baby, and parties, bars, and traveling is simply the best way to spend it. The fourth of July began with a pool party at Justin’s apartment (yes, single Bella, did have a relapse), and ended with an intense rainstorm and card games. A few days passed and the girls and Bonnie went up to Boulder for a beautiful hike and celebration of Chautauqua Park’s 50th annual birthday party.

A week later, my 23rd birthday commenced. I enjoyed brunch with my family, followed by a trip to Boot Barn for some authentic cowgirl boots (thanks, Mama), a Yankees-Rockies game, and ended with dancing the night away at the Irish Rover. Growing up I always disliked having my birthday in the middle of the Summer, because I never got to bring in birthday cupcakes for my classmates. As I got older, however, I realized how awesome a Summer birthday is and now know that I was meant to be a Cancer baby.

My love for traveling has made a birthday trip now a tradition. Since 2020, I have had the joy of sharing my birthday with my closest friends, always planning a trip to remember. 23 was celebrated in Austin, Texas – quite a change up from the previous two years in Vegas. As much fun as Austin was, I do not recommend planning a trip there in the dead of July, unless you love the beating sun and 80 degree (f) nights out. Nonetheless, my friends made me feel like a princess gifting me with 818 tequila and birthday cake in our stunning Airbnb that overlooked the riverfront.

After being back in Denver for a brief two weeks, G and I made our way up to Toronto, Ontario, for a weekend to see our all time favorite EDM group, Rufus Du Sol. Our “hotel” room was actually a joke, with its one twin bed and single desk chair. But of course, G and I always make the most of things and took it as a sign to avoid the room at all costs by exploring the city of Toronto. I don’t know why I thought going to Canada was going to be somewhat of a life altering experience, but it’s pretty much just like the United States, except for the occasional ‘ay’ and friendlier strangers. Rufus was obviously the highlight, and there’s no better person I would have wanted to experience ‘Innerbloom’ live with than G.

Dom celebrated his 18th birthday in New Jersey with our great uncle Donald, and enjoyed his last few weeks of Summer before heading off to start his Creighton adventure. After sharing a few ‘see you soon’ hugs, I headed back to the midwest myself for my friend Molly’s 5th annual Kalb Family Boil. The Boil takes place every year in the small (but quickly growing) town of Waconia, MN and is an event that isn’t to be missed. Molly, her five siblings, and their significant others throw the most legendary seafood boil. The weekend was filled with drinking games, baby Luke time (Molly’s adorable newborn nephew), and loads of crab, crawfish, potatoes, corn, and more. Molly is the only single one out of her siblings, but lucky for us that means we get to be her +1 (or +6) every year.

I drove down to Minneapolis later that weekend to see my aunt Christine, uncle Jason, and three sweet little cousins Addison, Payton, and Jackson. It’s rare that I get to spend time with my extended family, so I was sure to enjoy every moment, most notably our trips to the winery and Barbie movie. However, it wasn’t long before September came around the corner and the entire family was reunited for the most epic event of the year.

Christian and Meo were home from Vietnam, Dom was off at Creighton, G was navigating her future career through yoga and real estate, Joseph was turning 14, and I was headed for my year in London. In lieu of each of these major life events, Mom and Dad hosted a pig-roast and invited about 150 of our closet friends and family to share these moments with us. Friends and family drove, trained, and flew from all over the world to spend an entire day with us dancing, mingling, munching, and enjoying. The Addiego clan came in from Sacramento, Prostrollo’s from Minneapolis, and my dear friend Lexi from Omaha. Nobody knows how to throw a better party than the Scipione’s and this was sure a day that will forever go down in history.

Weeks later, Christian and Meo were officially engaged and I was on my plane to London. In my most recent London blog, I shared the challenges I was facing during my initial few weeks of my life, thousands of miles away, on my own. I am proud to say that I have begun settling in with much more ease and I am finally starting to embrace the fact that I have set myself on this journey of a lifetime. I have learned how to love hanging out alone and encouraged myself to go outside of my comfort zone to build new friendships.

October was a filled with fruitful new friendships that I now hold dear to my heart. My friend Molly is a joy to be around and someone that feels like home. The two of us were initially supposed to live together, and although things fell through, we made sure to stay in touch and explore the best (and worst) of London’s pubs and nightlife. Molly introduced me to my now, best friend, Nadeem at a gay club called Heaven. Nadeem has pretty much become my twin flame ever since and we have a shared love for adventure and just purely iconic moments. I met Jason through mutual Omaha connections, and he has continued to be one of my closest friends as well.

I started November in Spain with Lindsey and spent the rest of the month focused on school. I absolutely love what I am learning and cannot wait to see what my future career has in store. I have a different answer for pretty much every person who asks “what is that?” when I tell them I am earning my master’s in Global Health and Public Policy. While my answer is usually along the lines of, “well you know the WHO, and CDC? yeah, basically that”, I realize that this is absolutely no help. Although, I think it’s usually my answer because I am still not even fully sure what global health truly means to me given its broad discourse. Either that, or I can’t be bothered to mansplain to people who usually don’t really give a shit.

What I do know, however, is this is the first time in my academic career where I have never felt more challenged to think critically about the world that we live in. We all live in such bubbles, and while I believe there isn’t any inherent fault in this, I have learned that it is a personal obligation to actively reflect on the the core of who you are and where you come from. None of us have any control over the lives of which we are born into, but I do encourage those that will listen to go outside of their comfort zone and ask questions about things that don’t always seem to make sense. I share this in the space of not just exploring the current global events and tragedies happening around the world today, but also in a reflective space of the people you choose to love, lean on, and learn from.

My first semester at King’s College ended early December and I celebrated with a friendsgiving, lunch dates in the city, and Christmas drinks before saying goodbye to many of my friends as we all went our separate ways heading into the new year. I made a visit back home to Denver to surprise my parents and hang out with my siblings, friends, and Bonnie.

My trip home was put on hold for 24 hours after missing my connecting flight in Iceland. As discouraged as I was, I took it as a sign to make the most of it. Icelandair hooked me up with a night’s stay in a hotel nearby along with some free meal vouchers. I met a guy from New York who was in the same situation, so we ended up having dinner and drinks together. We wandered around the town of Keflavik, searching for the Northern Lights, only to end up at the local Irish bar called Paddy’s. Numerous shots of traditional Icelandic liquor called Brennivin, also known as ‘Black Death’, led to a random, but wild, Saturday night in Iceland.

I eventually made it home and Mom and Dad were pretty much speechless. It felt so good being back and taking the time to rest and recharge. I kept thinking about how I couldn’t believe I have an entire different life now in a city across the world. It still feels incredibly surreal, and as I sit on my flight back, writing this year in review, I am filled with so many emotions. While I am thrilled that 2023 has been one I will never forget, I am sad leaving my family yet again, unsure of the next time I will see them. But, home will always be home and it’s a joy in of itself to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

This year will conclude with Christmas in Copenhagen, followed by a trip to Berlin, and New Years in London with five of my closest friends. My three best high school friends, Matthew, Caitlyn, and Nick, and my close college friend Maddy and her roommate, will be meeting me in Copenhagen to celebrate the holiday all together. Matthew has just been accepted to medical school, Caitlyn is finishing up her master’s degree at Syracuse, and Nick just started a big boy job in NYC. 2024 will be just about 10 years of the four of us being friends, so a mini Europe tour to end and start 2023 and 2024 is just what we need. I will be sure to share some of our wholesome, or unhinged, adventures when the time comes.

In the meantime, I am living out all of my wildest dreams, ones that I didn’t even think could be made possible. A big thank you to every person that follows along Bella’s Blogs. And a big congratulations to every one of my friends and family who have celebrated major life milestones this year. Your endless love and encouragement is what makes all of this possible and there is no better life that I wish to be living. Hats off to you 2023, and cheers to 2024, we welcome you with nothing but joy, love, and grace – let’s ride!!!.

xx, Bella