cheers to 28!
celebrating another trip around the sun
in this week’s newsletter: the joys of turning another year older, sharing birthday traditions, and celebrating the every day, simple growth and progress
dear penpals -
how do you feel about becoming another year older? i know for some it can be a heavy and/or scary feeling to experience another birthday, but for me, i like turning older. i like knowing that i have another year of life under my belt and have a personal marker, outside of the typical “new year, new me” mentality, to capture my progress and growth. and recently i had the chance to celebrate another birthday and it was joy in its truest and purest form.
(i often joke with friends that my soul age is much older than my physical age, so turning another year old just makes me feel like i’m getting that much closer to my soul age)
i celebrated by going aizome dyeing (previous newsletter explaining what aizome dyeing is here!) and finally got the chance to give a terribly old and stained t-shirt a second life and included some pretty fun designs of my own! many thanks to the staff at watanabe’s for the hilarious visual chemistry lesson, friendly atmosphere, and a wonderful experience getting my hands back into crafting mode!
i ended the evening in the comfort and laughter with my community here in kamikatsu. we shared dinner around the big table at cafe and i felt so much joy to be surrounded by the people i’m calling home and the way they have and continue to play such an important role as i continue to build roots in the countryside.
i’m also forever in deep gratitude for the chance to spend this birthday with my sister. there have been more birthdays missed and celebrated from afar due to living in different parts of the world, but this year i got to celebrate it with her and that alone was the best gift i received.
i can’t remember when i started this, but a well-cherished tradition i have on my birthday is to write things i am grateful for based on the age i’m turning that year. but to also make it more reflective, i focus on the things i’m grateful for within the past 365 days to really track my progress, growth, and joy the year has brought.
here are a few of the joyful ones written. in honour of turning 28, i am grateful for:
being brave to push myself to officially move to kamikatsu
recognizing and acknowledging my burnout and choosing to care for myself enough to walk away from and quit my job
celebrating both old communities and friendship with people back in canada and new ones i’m creating here in japan
making things with my hands and finding joy in the arts again
being intentional to spend time with and navigate online spaces with long-distance friendships
recognizing and accepting that what i thought was my “dream” job actually isn’t, and that it’s okay to go and find a new dream
traveling with friends for the first time and experiencing many adventures during our asia trip together
there was a trend on instagram floating around a while back where people posted photos of themselves that matched the audio to a song “quarter life crisis” by taylor bickett. this trend focused on the lyrics that said, “i swear 16 was yesterday, but now i’m closer to 28”.
a while back i was having a conversation with a friend that led me to look through old photos and i happen to find one of me, travelling through japan, at the little age of 16. and i look back on those memories and find myself in disbelief that the country i would visit for short periods of time back then, is now the same place i’m building my life here at 28.
so if i could go back in time to talk to 16-year-old me, i would tell her to keep going. life truly does get better with age.
おたんじょうびおめでとう! 🎊🎂
Happy birthday! Love your posts as always!