A surprise double feature this month?
I am sending out a half letter, sorta the newsletter, but only halfway. It’s less formal too. Don’t get used to it though. I’m too slow of a writer to do this all the time. This is a special occasion…
I am, at this very moment in time, celebrating my 24th birthday (with Covid regulations and cocktails.) We celebrated a day early, but now that it’s midnight I can welcome the mirage of 24. I’m kissing my sweet little 23rd-year goodbye.
I posted a small excerpt of my last newsletter to tik tok. As I predicted, older people didn’t much like that I, a young spruce 23-year-old, was saying I was gonna be old when I turned 24. 30 somethings left and right were commenting on my post to say “wait until 30,” or “screaming laughing because when you’re 30 you’ll blah blah blah.” Admittedly I’m a sensitive person, it hurt my feelings. There were, however, quite a few youngins in the comments too, which made me glad I had shared it. Teenagers and newly 20-year-olds were afraid like me, they felt old, and the end of life, and the panic. I don’t have an approximate age range of the people who subscribe to me, but I know there are a handful of people here who are younger than 24. Many of them feel as I do, feel afraid, or worried, nervous about getting older.
I’m not quite the expert on the subject, but I’m here to say that getting older is wonderful, it’s possibly the best thing you can ever let time do to you. Each year you shed the notions you have of the world to more comfortable ones, life starts to fit better on you.
People complain about being an adult, there are things that aren’t fun so I understand why it seems scary to get older. The truth is though, I celebrate every day that I don’t have to be a teenager or 20-year-old again. I don’t think there is anything about it that I would like to go back to besides maybe home-cooked meals every night or seeing my parents daily. But there are things now I can never give up. I think the particularly beautiful thing to me is any night of the week I can leave my apartment to get dinner with friends or even alone. I don’t know what it is about dinner, and messy plates, the chime of silverware when they scrape against each other, but it’s an addicting quality to life for me. I love walking past restaurants at 7 and when spring arrives I love the clarity of the noise when restaurants begin opening their windows for the sidewalks to hear.
There is nothing much I can say besides you made it. Happy spring and happy birthday, whenever it is. We’re all getting older together. Nothing really is ending but winter and one year from the next. The best part about time is it lets you tailor life perfectly to what you like. Get comfy.
We’ll talk again soon.
Love always.
Chloé