happy new year!

Today is my twenty-ninth birthday. I tend to equate my birthday to the start of a new year, seeing as they fall so close to one another. I also like that I still have just a bit of time to get my bearings in a new calendar year, before starting a new year of life. Those ten days are a great buffer for the new and uncharted world ahead. 

And so today we find ourselves at the start of a new year, with endless possibilities, countless new beginnings, but also still feeling the weight of most everything we have accomplished for ourselves in years past. As someone who misplaces a planner the day I get it, I’m not prone to such structured organization habits. I would much rather keep track of things using my own personal sense of who, what, when, where, and why. However, I do love resolutions! 

There’s no need to scrunch your nose up like that, it’s nothing as sinister as becoming a completely different person for a week and then feeling guilty when you can’t keep up with completely unrealistic goals. However if you do that every year, and it works well for you, I won’t get in your way. My resolutions tend to just be a list of goals I set for my self. Things I want to try in my next year of life and hopefully beyond. If I don’t get to a goal, nothing bad happens to me. I still wake up the next day the same person I was the day before and the goal doesn’t disappear, just like I don’t disappear.

These goals occasionally feel like small manifestations: My “bring back creativity” mindset of 2023. Other times, they feel like a way to jazz up a boring weekend: My “make biscuits and gravy from scratch” goal of 2024. And sometimes they feel like a bit I have with myself: My “learn a song on the guitar that you bought for yourself” lifelong achievement award I have been gunning for since 2016. The root of the matter is, I like setting goals for myself, and using them as a guiding light. They are not a path I cannot stray from, but one should not stare directly at the sun. That’s why these goals exist all around me. I see them when I dream, I feel them in the breeze, they flit and float and fly, wait, where was I? 

I just recently learned that people in their twenties are making lists.

”Thirty By Thirty” lists, to be specific.

I am starting from way behind, considering I have one year left to complete a list of thirty things I want to do by thirty years old, but I am confident I can get them done. I will not share all thirty things here, for there are some goals worth keeping to yourself, but I do want to fill you all in on some fun ones: 

1. Read 30 books
2. See 30 sunrises 
3. Upgrade my blog (yes, I’ve already checked something off my list)
4. Learn one song on guitar (don’t say a word) 
5. Frame and hang all my wall art

I am not writing this post to brag, nor am I writing it to challenge you or put you up to something you don’t want to do. I just want you to know that if you have ever wanted to try something new, make a note of that something. It doesn’t have to go on your resolutions list, and as a matter of fact it doesn’t have to go on any list. If you can acknowledge that you have an idea for something that will bring you joy, that’s a great first step. The more you give an idea space to grow, the closer it is to becoming reality. Dreams are simply ideas we have while we sleep, but we spend most of our life awake. Doesn’t that seem like our dreams can all eventually become a reality if we want them to be? Honestly, what do I know! Just think about it, how about that? 

So what do I have planned for my birthday? Well I have work today, 7 am – 3 pm give or take a little leeway for my arrival and departure. I also need to light my birthday candle and make a wish. I need to pull a wish out of my winter solstice pinecone.  Now that I think about it, perhaps those two will become one. I have a dinner that my besties scheduled. And then we will end the night with some good, old school, retro vibes at Wheatridge Lanes. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day and a happy new year ❤