Still Waiting on a Fully Formed Frontal Lobe: an Open Letter to Turning 24

Birthdays are so maybe the most important thing about a person I can learn. When you ask someone when their birthday is, you can kind of immediately gauge if they are a "please for the love of all things that are good, do not remember this," or "write this date down and never forget it," kind of person. Fortunately--for me--I fall in to the latter category. I start planning my birthday months in advance, I create the guest list, curate the vibe, make the reservations, etc. It is the one day a year that everyone celebrates you and I have never met someone who doesn't like to celebrate another person's birthday.

I think as I get older, birthdays get sweeter. The friendships are another year older, my brain becomes another year closer to being fully developed, and I get to look back at all the lessons I learned and fun I had! So in honor of 24, here is my list of the 12 things I've learned over the last 12 months:

1. Take the time to develop a morning and night time skin care routine. Water won't cut it!

2. Do not be chill. Liking something normally is out. Make the things you like a personality trait. It doesn't hurt anyone and if anything, you're teaching the people around you something new as well.

3. Be all in. No matter where you are, what you are doing. People notice where your effort goes.

4. Reach out to people. You get older, people's lives are moving on. Reaching out is glue for friendship.

5. Book the trip. You'll never be this young or have this much energy ever again.

6. Join a Book Club. If you can't join one, create one! Being in a book club has actually become something I look forward to every month and just shows you how wholesome fun can be sometimes.

7. Monthly Maintenance. Do something every month that makes you feel cared for by you and just elevated. That can be getting your nails done, a facial, a wax--though you'd be hard pressed for me to find these "caring." It can be anything that makes you feel pampered!

8. Travel Points. If you are going to get a credit card, make sure you get flight miles or travel points. And if you are feeling extra nice, ask your friends if they have referral codes. That way everyone is winning.

9. Bet on Yourself. No one can make you believe in you. And no one is going to do it for you. And if you fail? Cool. You have a really great support system to pick you back up.

10. Get Creative. The need to have a creative outlet of some kind that is meant just for you to enjoy, not make money, not get likes, is major.

11. Ask More Questions. Taking things at face value is never giving the full picture of what is going on.

12. Rest. Not doing everything is okay. I'm still working very hard to learn this one obviously. But there is a noticeable difference when we are interacting from a place of rest rather than overstimulation.

This age looks so different than I thought it would have at one point, but I'm so glad the plans I had at 16 are not the plans I have at 24. Honestly, the plans I have at 24 are different than the plans I had at 23. And if February of 2025 rolls around and I come back to this list and realize that none of it resonates anymore, then I'll keep moving forward. No one is supposed to stay the same, where is the fun in that?

Wrapping up this open letter, all i ask of 24 is to be good to me, I'm very excited to see who I'll become next.

My 24th Birthday Photo in Paris