To my 32nd year–
First and foremost, welcome. We hope that you have a great time while you’re here.
I know you’ve met 30 and 31 before, and their youngest, 29. The trio lives as the start of some of our best years. Who would’ve known? We thought all this time that our 20s was where it has happening, but not for us. In a way, our 30s feel like what our 20s should’ve been like. Is it bad to say that we were more serious in our 20s than now? Crazy, right?
But, these are our best years because it finally feels like we are content with life. Not settled, but truly content. In the last three years, we’ve build up our professional career. In the last three years, we’ve created traditions that are uniquely our own. In the last three years we’ve become stronger than what we ever thought being strong was back then. It was a lot to endure to get here, but you are not the end of our story. You are a part of our beginning.
While you aren’t a symbolic year, you are the year that leads up to one. The beauty about being the youngest one around is that you get to see how other people navigate these important journeys in their life. Your partner, for example, is in their 33rd year. The 33rd year, or the Christ year, is the year that you come face to face with the consequences for the actions of your younger self, shedding the old, young adulthood mindset to completely be immersed in adulthood. In a sense, it’s the true beginning of your adulthood. We’ve witnessed that throughout the entire year, taking note that it will happen to us too—
But, we can discuss that next year when we get there.
For now, let’s continue to walk along the path that we were destined to go down. Let us continue to learn and grow, challenge and take action, live and laugh (and love, haha) what the path has in store for us. 32 may look a lot like our 31st; maybe it will be completely different. Who the hell knows? What we do know though I that through it all, we will continue to stay true to ourselves, even when we feel like we have to change something.
Oh! By the way, 31 decided that they wanted to do some digging and soul searching and came back with a gift: learning what OCD looks like on us. Yes, I know our 24th year is looking at us like “isn’t major depression and social anxiety enough to juggle?!” To which 31 responded with, “nope, you’re suppose to juggle three things at a time.”
The point of it all is that we are learning in our adulthood that we need to be more vocal about the things that seem off, or feel out of place. If you find yourself struggling without any real explanation, it could be something that you are internally keeping in. Talk about it, because you never know that the answer to your unsolvable questions are in the details you share out loud.
I know this may seem like a lot to take in on top of all of the new things you will expose to us being 32, but believe me when I say this: it’s all going to be worth it. Every year, we will come back to celebrate the new year to come, reflecting back on all of the things that we did and where we expect to be in the next one. So be excited, 32! You are coming at a time where life is good, and we are in a good place in it. You are also in a place where you are stronger, wiser, more mature, but still balance your youth.
So, cheers to you, 32! We’re excited to have you join us.
Letters From Liz. 