A Month of Gratitude

  1. Waking up naturally, before your alarm goes off, and actually feeling ready to get out of bed; conversely, changing into pajamas and getting into bed at a ridiculously early hour, knowing you could instantly go to sleep or you have plenty of time to read your book and get sleepy
  2. Going for a run that you think is only going to last one mile, but feeling so good that you end up running further and every extra step makes you feel like a total badass
  3. Girl friends who bring me back to reality when I’m getting too hard on myself
  4. Female friendships in general, and how great it is to connect with people for the first time as who I truly am, instead of some version I’m pretending to be (basically me all the way through the age of twenty-five). Making new friends as an adult is hard, but so worth it.
  5. Random strangers you pass on the street who go out of their way to stop you (normally this is annoying, but) and tell you how much they like your tattoos, and then get excited to show you their own
  6. When you get new headshots done at work and you actually like the way you look in them
  7. That eating fast food in the car on a road trip to a destination you’ve been looking forward to feeling; this feeling is best when headed towards water, especially the ocean
  8. The smell of summertime. In the city, sometimes the smell of summertime turns into the smell of hot dog shit radiating from the sidewalk trashcans, so when you get that actual summertime smell it becomes that much better. Summer smells sweet, but it’s heavy, like walking through pretzel dough. Is the dog-shit-pretzel-dough combo not doing it for you? Go outside. Smell for yourself.
  9. Having pets that keep your life fun and remind you to slow down. Having pets who love you unconditionally even when you don’t feel you deserve it
  10. Novels. All of them.
  11. Also coffee. All of it.
  12. Having a partner who is willing to grow and change throughout your relationship, and being able to see them consistently step up to be what you need; having them challenge you to do the same
  13. Times when your work colleagues become your in-real-life friends
  14. When you laugh so hard your fake sort of polite-sounding normal laugh goes away and you enter into uncontrollable laughing territory where the real laugh noises come out and you can’t help it, which makes you laugh even harder until you’re laughing so hard no noise comes out at all, which is the funniest of all laughs
  15. Filling up one notebook and then getting to go buy another; bonus points if you decide to spring for new pens as well
  16. The child-and-parent relationship you can have as an adult, where you realize how great your parents actually are and get to have actual conversations with them
  17. Cherries and their magical healing powers – actually, any and all fruit eaten between the months of May and September
  18. Long walks listening to a podcast or long drives singing along to music
  19. Long distance friends reaching out to schedule a phone call with you because they want to catch up, and instantly being transported back to the time when you both existed in the same place as one another
  20. People who are willing to share their time and expertise to help you with things in your life, especially if those are things that are particularly stressful to you but exciting or interesting to them
  21. Ice. Cream.
  22. The Duolingo app for learning Spanish – I’m on a thirty-day streak and am now fully committed and totally indoctrinated into this cult that of Duolingo-ers where I will do absolutely anything to maintain my streak
  23. Playing new board games with your family who by now have accepted that you are an overly-competitive sore loser
  24. Having kids around during the summer so that you get to indulge in all of the fun kid activities and don’t need to find a weird excuse to do them (a few of my favorite examples: playing sharks and minnows in the pool; going to the dinosaur museum; building sand castles; telling scary stories late at night with the flashlight under your face)
  25. Hearing a song from your childhood and remembering it word for word
  26. That instead of spending a lot of money on a big wedding Bobby and I decided to take a honeymoon every year together so we have a trip to Peru (and our 2-year wedding anniversary) coming up in less than thirty days
  27. Learning new things
  28. Putting your phone down somewhere and forgetting it exists – this happens so rarely but feels so special when it does
  29. Exceptionally good hair days, getting your nails done, when you pull on a pair of jeans and they somehow fit just right, any excuse to wear your favorite romper, when comfy shoes look good with business outfits, when your friends let you borrow their clothes and it feels the same as buying new ones
  30. Loving so many people with so many different kinds of love
  31. This blog where I’ve built my own little corner of the internet, where I can flip back through pages of posts and see who I was, who I am, and who I am becoming, and the fact that now I can do all of that without judgement or shame or fear