29 Truths at (almost) 29

When I was younger, I was such a birthday girl. I used to stay awake on my birthday eve and come midnight, I would start to awkwardly dance around. 30th March is the day the universe wanted me to show up in the world and I always had so much fun celebrating that simple fact.

For whatever reason, as I got older, I rarely celebrated my birthday. I started to feel like I was making a big deal out of nothing. After all, everyone has one so what’s the fuss? That attitude coupled with some very tough life events almost made me believe that my birthday wasn’t worth celebrating anymore.

The events and tragedies of the past two years have reminded me how important it is to celebrate life as opposed to, well, not celebrating it. For many of us, the pandemic and other tragedies have turned our worlds upside down. We went from living engaging lives on the move to being stuck working from home. We lost loved ones, jobs, connections, and friends.

From mass grief to the great resignation, life as we knew it before 2020 has ceased to exist. If anything, the past two years have forced us to evaluate our lives at a deeper level than ever before and to pay attention to the things that truly matter — family, lovers, friends, and our mental, physical, and spiritual health.