Day 135

This is gonna be more than one sentence. Kindly deal with it.

On Day 135 of Remote Year I half-celebrated my 26th birthday (I’ll finish celebrating next month. I’m a grown-up and I can make these choices.). Remember when you turned 20 and you were like “Thank god I don’t have to end my age in ‘-teen’ anymore…that was so lame.” That’s how it feels to no longer say I’m 25. I think these days people think of 25-year-olds as buying too much avocado toast (Apparently enough to purchase a home? Show me that house.) and spending $30/class with no discounted packages at Soul (STOP DOING THAT). A 26-year-old is possibly working toward navigating their way out of their quarter-life-crisis, realizing you can make avocado toast at home for way cheaper, and checking their finances every single morning. Apparently.

Let me be very clear: I still have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. But I’m starting to really understand the underlying themes of what I actually like (I have a note in my phone titled “Things I actually like” because I am often unsure. In case you were wondering there are 3 things on my list). Instead of every day wondering if I should be an astronaut, a programmer, a vegan chef (I’m not even vegan…), or an urban designer, I’m starting to kind of notice a regular cadence of what turns the gears in my head. And that, at the very least, is progress.

I can tell you what I know will happen this year: I will go to 10 more countries (as of my current count; there may be a couple more in there) before 2017 is over. I will reunite with one of my best friends in one of those. I will reunite with my dear love in another. I may or may not reunite with my geopolitical love. I will return to Boston and we will try to make nice. I hope to get certified to teach just one more thing, so much so that we’re gonna call that a definite. I will eventually say goodbye to 75ish of my new favorite people in the world, and wonder how I’ll manage without them. I will get to say hello again to people I will not have seen in over a year. I think that sounds like a pretty good year, and that’s just the stuff I know about.

For my last birthday, for reference, I decided to jet off to Iceland on my own, convincing myself that traveling alone would be better than traveling with others. Anyone else would just ruin the experience. I laid in the grass at the Keflavik airport at the end of that trip, so proud of spending a week in isolation in one of the most beautiful places I’d ever been. I remember hearing the lyrics “Far from home, so alone, but we’re so happy” and being amazed at how much that resonated. I still am proud of doing that week on my own and currently have two solo side trips planned because there is something inherently badass about working your way through an unknown place without any help, and I still love that song, but now I’m not so scared to share these experiences with other people. One year! One year made that very big difference. Who even knows what I’ll be rambling about a year from now.

So what did I do on this birthday? I slept in for 15 minutes. I woke up to surprise peanut butter and dried peaches from my lovely roommate. I went to the workspace. I was treated to coffee. I made lunch at home (Avocado toast! I’m serious, guys.). I took a 30-minute nap with the door open to the balcony so it felt like fall in my room. I went to a cafe and treated myself to coffee and a very indulgent waffle sandwich. I made dinner at home (a veggie burger – just the patty considering I’m out of bread – with carrots and peanut butter). I went to a workout class with three of my favorites and sweat a crap ton. I went to my friend’s house where many more friends were, and they played music and sang Happy Birthday, and we all played games. I videochatted with Herl. And I went to bed.

It was simple, and easy, and not filled with stress and pressure, and I had coffee two times, and a perfect balance of time with people and time to myself, and I’m thinking this whole “celebrate half now and half a month from now” is worth repeating.