My 24th Birthday Wish

This Friday will be my 24th birthday, and I’m actually very excited. I know as people get older, they start to dread birthdays and getting another year older, but 24 to me feels fitting. I don’t always feel as if I’m the age I’m turning, but this year it just feels right. 

Granted, I can’t help but laugh when I look back on what I imagined my life would be when I was 24 if you had asked me five or six years ago. I definitely had some skewed ideas of how quickly we “grow up” after graduating college…but I’m getting there! 

Reflecting on how differently my life has turned out, which things I’ve accomplished and which things I haven’t, and the way I envision my future now compared to in the past has really had me thinking about what I genuinely expect from myself in this next year. 

So, I thought I would make a list of the things that I “wish” for myself in my 24th year, and I think it will be really fun to look back on this list and see how things actually turned out! (Of course, I also have a wish list of gifts in mind, too…)

Here is what I wish for myself in the year that I am 24:

On Travel…I already have a few plans in the works for this year (including the one I’m currently on in Puerto Rico!) but I definitely want travel to be a big part of this next year. I hope that in this next year I can travel to at least one place I’ve never been, and to travel out of the country at least once. I’m not going to set strict guidelines for this portion – I just want to make sure that I’m always experiencing new things and places, both with friends and with Dalton. Some of the places topping my list currently include: Charleston, Seattle, Belize, Ibiza, Tulum Mexico, Jackson Hole, & Martha’s Vineyard/Nantucket area. (To name a few!!)

On New Skills & Hobbies… I think I’ve done a really good job of staying busy beyond my full-time job. Blogging and going to pure barre definitely keep me busy, but I have other hobbies and interests that I hope to spend more time cultivating. I want to keep reading as much as possible, and I’d love to really grow my cooking abilities even more this year. Maybe finally taking a cooking class is in the works?! I think the older I get in my 20s, the more I find myself wanting to spend my weekends doing things other than going out to bars.

On Relationships…This category, of course, is the hardest to predict. You never know what will happen with significant others or even close friendships, but I think for now that my vision of this will remain consistent with what I’ve thought it would in the last couple of years. Dalton is planning on moving to Chicago in the next few months (finally!) and I anticipate that being nothing but a good thing. For my friendships and family, I hope that I continue to give them the attention and effort that they deserve…with more emphasis on seeing family more often. My siblings and parents are scattered all over, but that can just be an added component to my goal of traveling more!

On Self…I hope that in this next year, if there is one thing I can truly master for myself, that I fully learn to not be so hard on myself over the little things. Sometimes, I really thrive at letting things go that I can’t control, and other times I find myself beating myself up over the smallest of things for no reason at all. I think being a little easier and more forgiving on myself would be a huge part of growing up in this next year, and would only improve every other aspect of my life.

I don’t have any particularly out of reach goals for myself in this next year…but I think that just means that so far, I feel like I’m on the right track! (Or at the very least, I’m doing the best that I can!) I can’t wait to see what this year brings, where I will go, and the people that will be by my side. Cheers to another year!