Hi y’all,

Today is my 25th birthday. I don’t know if that feels old or young, but I do know that it feels like something work celebrating. You guys already got my gift to you — we got an awesome bonus note on Wednesday that if you haven’t caught up on yet, you really ought to (link here). Today is my gift to myself — some free range naval gazing for my birthday.

Before I go any further — let’s do the housekeeping.

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Okay — back to it.

Birthdays are for reflections — at least that’s always how I have felt about them. For this birthday, as my brain is finally coming into it’s final form, I wanted to reflect on who I am as a person. Originally, I was going to write “25 things that I know about myself”, but if I know myself at all, I know that those 25 things might change and really how written in stone are they. Instead, I have written 25 things I believe about myself. I wanted to allow for fluidity in who I am an how I might grow. I hope that you enjoy it and learn a little bit more about me.

25 Things I Believe About Myself (in no particular order):

1. I am an early bird.

2. I was not built for staying awake past 11 and I am ok with that.

3. I am a good friend.

4. I am picky when it comes to the people I let myself love.

5. I will always feel a little better after sitting in the sun.

6. I am stronger than I think I am – physically and mentally.

7. I am more resilient than I think I am.

8. I like my coffee sweet and a little spicy. (If you haven’t tried putting a bit of cayenne and a bit of cinnamon in your coffee, I’m telling you… you gotta)

9. I will not finish a book if I don’t like it (and am not reading it for book club).

10. I like reading books that are plot driven.

11. I don’t like books that are overly descriptive unless they are super poetic and then I will come back around to it.

12. I don’t mind walking away from a movie in the middle. (And I am really really bad at finishing TV shows)

13. I am constantly working to be better.

14. I suck at following recipes but I am a pretty decent cook.

15. I like expressing myself through creative writing.

16. I like learning new things but I hate being bad at things.

17. I get road rage but that just means that I gentle parent the other drivers on the road.

18. I really like my job as a project manager probably because I like order, control, and delegation.

19. I don’t like pranks, but I love a good laugh.

20. I take myself too seriously.

21. I love country music and probably always will.

22. I will say that I don’t like musicals, but there is always an exception that I will point out.

23. I like weekend mornings spent walking on trails with friends.

24. I like driving – to the mountains or to the grocery store, I just like being behind the wheel.

25. I am pretty cool/interesting/genuine.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Best,

Zoe

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