Happy Birthday to me! Tuesday was my 22nd birthday, and it’s crazy to think about how much is changing this year. With the coronavirus keeping nearly the entire world in quarantine, to say that I imagined I would be spending my 22nd birthday in Texas at my parents’ house would be a lie. For anyone that is not aware, I was born and raised in Southern California, never more than fifteen to twenty minutes away from the beach. I don’t live in Texas, and never did. My parents moved only a year ago. However, none of that was relevant, except to explain why I’m in Texas even though I live in LA, so I’ll continue on with my birthday. Originally, I had planned to visit one of my best friends in Seattle for a weekend of fun. She moved there in January, and I miss her like crazy. Fortunately, I am not turning 21 this year. I cannot even imagine turning 21 in quarantine. You are supposed to go out for your first celebratory legal drinks for your 21st birthday, not hole up inside your home. I suppose I can count myself lucky that your 22nd birthday is a little less monumental. However, all birthdays are still important. The last few birthdays have consisted of a lot of growth. 18 marked a year where I learned how independent I can be, and I was really starting to love every second of life. 19 showed me that my friends are my everything, and I am just so fortunate to have each one of them in my life. 20 was great until the last two months or so. It taught me a lot about balance. The previous years, I had placed too much importance on school, and this was the year the pendulum swung in the opposite direction. I was struggling to find the balance between my academic/professional priorities and my personal ones. 21 was an absolute nightmare as a whole. I do not know if it is possible for me to have begun with a rockier start, but to say that I stuck the landing on this year would be biggest understatement. 21 was most certainly not the best year in overview, but some of the biggest victories of my life also happened this year. I can only imagine what 22 has in store for me now that I have built up some momentum!
While this year I may not have gone to the Beverly Hills Hotel for drinks and chit chat like I did last year (you can read about that here), my amazing friends orchestrated a Zoom call for my birthday. We talked and talked for hours, and it was so good to “see” them. When I got off the phone, I was crying because I just wanted them here with me. I have to hand it to my parents for making the best of my quarantine birthday with the balloons and my red velvet cake (my favorite), but talking to my friends was easily the best part of my birthday. When I was talking to a different friend of mine later in the night, I got seriously homesick. Some of my friends are still in LA, and others left the city. However, LA is home and is where my heart will always be. I have made a life for myself there that I love to live and have filled with the most amazing people. More than ever, I miss home and want to return to my life. It is important that we all stay home now so that we can ride this out and go home safely when the time is right.
22 will mark a pretty significant year for me. I am making some serious decisions about the rest of my life, and I am pretty happy with the way it all looks like it will pan out to be (assuming we don’t spend the whole year in quarantine). I don’t want to give any hints just yet though about my plans. I can be a little superstitious about luck and jinxing things! However, upon further reflection of this past year, I thought I might share some words of wisdom and the biggest lessons I learned. For my 21st birthday, I shared the twenty things I learned in the twenty years prior. This year, I will only share five things, but perhaps I will make this a little tradition. So without further adieu, let’s start!
- Life is short…but it’s also long. It is short in a sense that we ought to make the best of it while we have the time. We often get caught up in life without even noticing how quickly time has flown. At the same time, life is a marathon, not a sprint. Life is far too long to spend so much of it unhappy. No one should go so long being absolutely miserable. We need to make the right investments and the right choices, for the things that might be a quick fix now may not be the right choice at the end of the day.
- Only cultivate relationships with people in your life that are worth it. Sometimes, there are just certain things we have to put up with. However, you deserve to have quality relationships, so surround yourself with people you enjoy being around. If you don’t need to be around someone who drags you down, then save yourself the time and energy you expend just on tolerating them. You will thank yourself in the end.
- It is important to be able to do things on your own, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Sometimes, it’s just better to do things with friends, which you could otherwise do yourself. The company is good! Humans are social creatures. We might not all be extroverts, but we crave social interaction. Even just chit chatting on a roomie run to the market will bring those relationships further along (and give you the perfect amount of peer pressure to buy the bag of chocolate covered pretzels you really want!). It helps with the FOMO too…just sayin.
- Your health is extremely important. I’m talking about both mental and physical health. Take care of yourself. You deserve it.
- It is important to try and live your life the way you want, free of as many judgements as possible. Competition can be crazy, and it doesn’t take much for it to really get to someone. The best way to not let the stress of it all get to a point where it is too overwhelming is to simply not care. I know I know. This is much easier said than done, and it might even be a little hypocritical for me to be preaching this. However, your goals become much more attainable when you are only focused on yourself because you aren’t comparing yourself to others or taking other people’s judgements to heart. Your life is yours, and everyone has their own path. Do things your way, not someone else’s. I suppose
I suppose I will end this year’s birthday post the same way I did last year’s. As I venture into my 22nd trip around the sun, I look forward to filling my life with even more love, happiness, an joy. It’s going to be a good year, and I’m looking forward to seeing what 22 has in store for me.
xx
Emily
