Can We Be Friends?
Hi. Hey. Sorry, didn’t mean to ghost you in Q4. Turns out working in Entertainment and Hospitality from Halloween to New Years is bananas. How are things? Set any goals for 2025? I sure did. Start writing again and stick to a schedule.
2024 began at Felix in Charleston. It was extravagant; champagne, oysters with caviar, regretfully leaving Tupperware at home when surely I could have stuffed a few chocolate eclairs in my purse. We shut A.C’s Bar and Grill down and I woke up the next morning for a quiet, peaceful walk to Harris Teeter. I was grateful to be stocking my fridge, and I spent the afternoon at a hot yoga class. I picked the spot closest to the window and sat up from savasana to a dog taking a shit with only the glass partitioning us.
Everyone in the practice that day had to pick a focus word for 2024. The word I chose to circle back to time and again this year was “Acceptance.”
Accepting that my plans may not align with what I originally envisioned. What unfolded, though, was better than I could have ever imagined.
It was a great year. I graduated, landed my first big girl job in corporate marketing, had a reel go viral for the first time (!), ran my first half marathon, spent one incredible weekend in Austin, saw more live music than most people ever get to. Saw Dom Dolla in the flesh. He ate at Terry Black’s Barbecue an hour after I did.
2025 began at work. Surrounded by thousands of people, I got the ball drop shot and left immediately - or really, thirteen minutes after midnight because I was waiting on my uber.
The peace and quiet began during the day. I took a walk around the Fell’s Point Waterfront, still in last night’s shoes.
Most years at the end of December, I envision the next year starting with a clean slate. For 2025, though, my focus word is Innovate. Find the highlights of 2024 and charge into 2025 with them in tow. Run another half marathon, and train better for it. Run the Chicago Marathon for CASA of River Valley (donate here!). Challenge my feelings on worthiness and deservedness and feed my healthy relationships. Read more. Own my writing.
In 2024, I started, but haven’t finished Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson. This quote stuck with me and I think it will resonate with a new year beginning:
“In the end, we must trust the path we choose to walk, anchored by a firm sense of our potential, inspired by the people with whom we surround ourselves, and bolstered by our willingness to keep on.”
That’s all for now. Talk soon.