On My Last Month of Being 24
It’s almost here! My birthday, that is. Birthdays are the one time of the year you get to celebrate being uniquely you, and I think that’s alway special. I make a big deal out of everyone’s birthday, not just my own (lol), and everyone who knows me knows this to be true. That said, I also tend to do a lot of reflection around the time of my own birthday, and since it’s less than a month away (and Pisces season is encroaching, which also makes me very reflective, I think) I have some thoughts to share on what I’ve learned thus far—
Spending my 24th year in the midst of a pandemic— what I learned
On March 6th, 2020, I was in Florida (specifically: at Okeechobee Music Festival) celebrating my birthday with my husband and our close friend Nina. Merely seven days later, I was told to leave my office and begin working from home “for a few weeks” (ha!) in the face of growing uncertainty around the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease known as COVID-19. Needless to say, what happened next was the emergence of a global pandemic, months spent in lockdown, etc. My 24th year started off, well, not so great.
Me, celebrating my birthday just before the world went wacky last year at Okeechobee Music Festival in beautiful Okeechobee, Florida.
However, over the last year, I learned valuable lessons in both coping and being adaptable. We left our home due to this pandemic, which was more difficult than I can explain. We haven’t been to our offices or seen many of our friends in a whole year. We had to learn how to celebrate life’s littlest joys, rather than celebrating life in big ways at music festivals with our friends (which is what we’d usually spend much of the year doing.) We had to learn how to cope with bad news and crushing sadness, and find some semblance of joy (for the sake of our own sanity) in the middle of it all. And you know what? We did it.
I saw “we” because, truly, I couldn’t have done it without my husband, Andrew. My 24th year brought our third year of marriage along with it, and though we married young, I am more sure now than ever before that he is my rock. He’s my best friend. He’s the one consistent human being I can count on, even when the world throws us a curveball as big and as unexpected as a global pandemic. This year I learned how to love him in new ways, and I’m forever thankful for how close we’ve come (even when everything else fell apart around us.)
Melodramatic, maybe. But it’s true. Year 24 taught me how to celebrate, love, and express myself in new ways despite myself and my own fear and sadness, and that is a lesson I’ll not soon forget.
Turning 25— what I want to learn this year
This year, I do expect things to get better (naysayers and ne’er-do-wells be darned, lol) and I have much to learn about coming back to myself, my work, and expanding in new and exciting ways. This year I want to work harder, build back better, and reach higher. I want to book more film and television jobs. I want to get promoted, or at least grow in some significant way, in my day-job. I want to travel again, if possible. I want to see more of the world. I want to learn to love my husband, my friends, and my family in new, exciting, and uncharted ways. I want to open myself to all of the good things. I want to allow and accept them. Simply put, that’s all I want this year; those two statements, in bold, no matter what life throws at me.
Nearly 25, shorter (and messier?) hair, heart and mind a little more open, learning and healing, all that jazz. :-)
Who really knows what life is going to teach me this year? As evidenced by the last year of my life, clearly— and to quote the late and great Jim Morrison— “the future’s never certain, and the end is always near.” So, with that said, I guess that’s what I want my 25th year to be; a celebration of life in the face of uncertainty, and living each day to the fullest (since tomorrow is never, ever guaranteed.) Cheers to (almost) 25 years, y’all!
Xoxo, MM.