22 for 22!
Good morning friends! Yesterday I turned 22, and I have been exceedingly, incredibly fortunate during these 22 years of my life. So to celebrate, I'm sharing 22 things that have made me happy in the past year.
This BBC Radio 1 performance of Chance the Rapper singing "All We Got." It's a borderline religious experience, and I've listened to it over and over again this past year.
My electric kettle. I bought it in sophomore year and it has seen me through hundreds, if not thousands, of cups of tea. I love sound of the bubbles as the water finishes boiling and the sound of the button clicking as it turns off.
The Twitter account @beaniebabybot. It automatically posts a few beanie babies every day on their birthdays, with photos and the little poem printed on their tags. Satisfies my need for the cute and joyous.
There's this chicken and fish place in North Oakland that makes the best fries I've ever had in my life. The secret is the seasoning, which is the perfect blend of salty and lemony and something else. A friend of a friend visited Pitt and told us these fries are just like how they make them in Lebanon. I've spoken bad, tipsy Arabic to the poor man at the cash register. The fries are best enjoyed during a movie or after a night out.
Homie, by Danez Smith, one of my favorite poets. It contains a poem that inspired me to write poetry the way I do and has influenced my poetry ever since, "Self-Portrait as 90s R&B video."
Carnegie library. I've spent many hours here reading, looking for books, doing homework ... it's a beautiful, happy place filled with cozy chairs, wide open spaces, great architecture, and soaring ceilings. My favorite place is the 2nd floor nonfiction stacks where you can look through windows and see the massive dinosaurs in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History spread out below you.
My last semester at Pitt I took a class called US and Latin America. My professor never failed to make me laugh, many times unintentionally; and maybe it was just me, but I felt a sense of camaraderie with my classmates even though we didn't talk much. Also, I learned about so much, like the US involvement in Operation Condor.
The abundance of socks I received at Christmas this year -- from my mother, my sister, my grandmother, my godmother, Alex, Alex's mother ...
The miracle of doing away with sheets and a comforter and instead just burrowing under four super soft, warm blankets. Also, blankets that are longer than 5 feet.
I went on some lovely trips this past summer. One to San Diego and La Jolla to visit some family friends, and we got to go to the zoo there. Another day trip to a Jersey shore, in which I drove a lot, read and sunbathed with friends, and ate fish and chips. Another few days spent in New York City with a bunch of friends. We took a megabus for 10 hours and got the entire back of the bus to ourselves. I went to the Strand for the first time and ate excellent ice cream, happily suffering the consequences.
Writing a crap-ton of poetry during 2019 and 2020 and getting to share it. My friends have hosted a few at-home poetry readings, and spent a few mornings this past summer at the local Starbucks responding to poetry prompts and sharing the results, fresh off the keyboard.
The scrubbing brush that I use to wash the dishes. It has a replaceable sponge on one end, and if you twist the cap at the other end, you can pour soap into the handle. When you press on the dishes, soap automatically seeps through the sponge. Washing the dishes is now my favorite chore.
Spending holidays from school with my family & friends & Alex. Some fun holiday trips: NYC to see The Lion King on Broadway, a few days in Rehoboth, a second Thanksgiving with my friend Mica's family.
Learning to draw with my iPad on Procreate. Returning to art has reminded me how soothing it is -- and it reminds me that improvement and progress doesn't always have to be intentional or arduous. It often simply requires continued practice.
The stickers in the kakaotalk messaging app. They're animated Korean animal characters, each with their own names and stories, and my favorite one is of Ryan the bear making music by smacking a tambourine against his butt.
Whipped Pinnacle vodka and pineapple Malibu and gin & tonics. Also, summer nights spent with friends at Hemingway's Cafe, usually for pitcher shots. Also, that weekend in June when I drank for the first time in months -- Friday night I partied with then-new, now-dear friends for the first time, and Saturday night I went out for a good friend's 21st.
Podcasts like "It's Been a Minute," with Sam Sanders. At the end of each Weekly Wrap podcast, he plays listeners who have called in to say the best thing that's happened to them that week. I've also enjoyed TED radio hour, BBC World Service, The Daily, The New Yorker podcast, and Ear Hustle (produced by inmates in California's San Quentin prison).
Zoom calls with some of my favorite people at Pitt. I'm talking about the writing center -- during my two-and-a-half year stay, the tutors there have become a sort of school family, and I will miss them terribly when I finish tutoring in a few short weeks.
When Alex makes bacon and eggs and uses the bacon grease to fry the eggs so they come out extra fatty and salty.
Doing push-ups every day. I being able to physically feel the progress.
A few weeks ago one of my coworkers showed us, via video conference call, the terrarium she'd made in a mason jar. Miraculously, she opened it one morning to find that a small snail -- smaller than my fingernail -- had taken residence on the lid.
When I video-call my mom and she's surrounded by our pets and she shows me each one and asks them to say hello to me.
Hope you found something in this list that brings you joy, too, or that reminded you of something joyful in your own life. Stay safe and healthy, and talk to you soon,
--Mia