As I look at my planner (yes, one with pages and blocks for every day of the year), and flip to next week, there is a big B coming up. Birthday. Another year of celebrating life and a milestone to really mark the end of a year and start of another. (Picture from the start of this past year when I blew out a handmade candle from an apple cider vinegar bottle after being serenaded by an 8 year-old and ate a toppled cake from Dominique Ansel)

I am changing. While birthdays of my younger years were filled with dreams of what types of gifts I wished to receive (and $$$), they are different now. People ask me what I want and my answer is nothing. Everything I need right now, I already have and I really believe it.

In these past few years, especially the New York years, I’ve found out less is more. I actually don’t want to have A TON of things in my possession because moving it around a city of millions of people? That sucks. Finding space in my closet of a room? That sucks too, but I also love how everything I need is right here with me. When you live in a place where you go morning to night without seeing home for 12 hours you carry everything you need with you. On your shoulder, in a bag that is not so obnoxious that it knocks people in the crowded subway. Or too big that it fits more things than you actually need.

I’ve found quality in the people who continue to be a part of my life. The ones who are actually here in the city with me and my long distance friends spread across the globe too! Friendships have strengthened and dissipated. I can’t make everyone happy but what is meant to work out, will. I’ve focused less on trying to control situations and more on how situations will find paths of their own. I put faith in fate and trusting my gut.

I have my health, family, friends, and the things in my tiny NY apartment. I’m young and a little reckless but not getting into trouble. I feel good about where I am and what I am doing. Time to make some goals for my next year of life. I’ll start with one I know a lot of people would agree I need more of in my life–sleep.