29 going on 26

And the world turned for me. One month ago, I celebrated 29. The last year of my twenties, the end of a decade so will you come take a trip down the birthday memory lane with me?

20, I’m driving in my red Honda CRV down I-95 South to my hometown where my mum has yellow polka dot balloons waiting for me on the lawn of my childhood home. You know it is 2013 when you find a girl decked out in chevron and brown riding boots – she’s doing alright.

21, I celebrated (and saved) my first glass of red wine with my parents in my hometown at Luigi’s, giggling and sipping and taking in every bit of advice of what it means to be this age.

22, it is my last year of college in Buies Creek and I am sipping on a margarita in MiCasita’s with my best friends singing, “I don’t know about you but I’m feeling 22” all night long

23, I’m a newly minted Georgia girl skipping and celebrating and dancing through Downtown Athens with new friends and I distinctly remember being the happiest I had ever been at this age

24, I’ve found my footing in this classic college town as I rung in another year on the rooftop of Georgia Theatre and beamed when everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to me in Waffle House in Downtown Athens. Oh and I also bought a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts to commemorate this age and rang the Chapel Bell on UGA’s North Campus. Geez, I loved this year.

25, my quarter life crisis came right on time because I am suppose to have everything figured out by this age, I’m told. Silly silly me, go relish in your new degree and know that big things are coming soon – just be 25, Sita.

26, I’m right on time and feeling so proud of the life I built in Boston yet I snuck away further up north to bask in the crisp air on the coast of Maine with a friend that makes me laugh till my belly hurts

27, I’m desperately craving connection and community after months of isolation and social distancing – a new vocabulary we’ve adopted this year – and this day just so happens to land on THE Presidential Election night so community was ever so essential. After multiple tests and nose swabs and quarantining, I got to ring in my late twenties with a special group of people on a rooftop of the prettiest Airbnb in the South End all whilst taking in the best view in all of Boston.

28, I left New England for a new city and found myself celebrating another year on another rooftop of a house that would soon become the safest place I know on this side of the District 

And 29!

I always say that I every birthday should be filled with all of your favorite things and it was – a massage, a SoulCycle class, Mediterranean food, sunflowers and topping it off with karaoke night with the best people I know in the District of Columbia.

Yet sometimes I still feel like I’m 26 or that I should be 26 long before a virus took over our lives, stealing so many pivotal moments and opportunities and memories. We were all robbed of something during this time. But you know what else? I have time – I have plenty of time.

so to my 20s, we’re doing alright. 

with love,

Sita