Bring on 26! -

Bring on 26!

Hi friends! Today is my 26th birthday! I have loved my birthday ever since I was little, and honestly plan to continue making it awesome no matter my age. When I sat down to write this birthday post I started off thinking I was going to share 26 things about me, but about half way in it just didn’t feel right. I want my birthday post to give you a true life update, and talk about what I am envisioning for 26.

Reflecting on 25

25 was a life changing year for me. I started off my 25th year living solo in my studio apartment in Chicago. I was thriving at my job, but was struggling majorly with work life balance. Fresh into the blogging world I was spending as much time as possible dedicated to growing my precious side hustle.

Throughout 25 I accomplished a lot for the blog. I partnered with brands for my first few sponsored posts, attend blogging events around Chicago, and most importantly honed in on what I want my brand to stand for.

Behind the scenes this year I made a conscious effort to practice self care. Self care has manifested in my everyday life mostly via an effort not to be so hard on myself. Step one is eliminating certain stigmas in my mind. A majority of the stress in my life is self inflicted and comes from playing the comparison game in my head. I look around me and start striving to catch up to those around me. The reality is that most of the people I am around are 5 years older then me. Many of them have accomplished so much and I am inspired by them, but tend to forget that I don’t need to be quite as far as they are yet. This year I am working on letting these comparisons go and giving myself some grace. After all wouldn’t following my own timeline be a lot more fitting?

As I sat here writing this post on my last day as a 25 year old I couldn’t help but be really damn proud of myself. 25 brought a fair amount of growing pains, but it also brought a lot of magical memories.

Embracing 26

A whole year of fresh possibilities. That is what comes to mind every year around my birthday. More so when I was younger since a new school year was about to start. This year I feel it in such a strong way because I am in the midst of leaving one job and starting another. Cue that grace I was talking about.

This year the thing I am most excited about is not the typical KB answer. Which would be “working hard/growing at my job and everything else will fall into place.” While this might be true, this year I am ecstatic to learn new skills at my new job but even more jazzed to relish in my personal life.

Joel and I have been in our apartment a few months now, and I finally feel truly at home in Chicago, right in #1010. Living together, dedicating time to our passions, and rewarding ourselves by doing things we love is all that is on the agenda for the foreseeable future. And I love that.

We go to a ton of concerts, over utilize our membership at the Music Box, eat a lot of ethnic food, and taste a lot of new beers. And I cannot wait for another year of this.

26 is going to be a good one, I feel it.