Finishing the 28th year.

I copy pasted these questions back in 2021. Not sure where they're from or who I stole them off of. I couldn't be bothered to answer these at the end of 2021, but here I am in 2024, wondering if it's worth it to answer in regards to my 28th year of life. 

Describe yourself in 2021 at 28:

I like to think that I'm much more reserved now at 28 than I was even a couple years ago. After a night of big laughter and being loud and talkative, I wonder if I was too much, or where out of me it even came from. Reserved also in my anxiety and my nervousness...whether that is a good thing or not...At the same time, I'm much more confident. I'm much less afraid to ask for what I want, to challenge what others say. I'm also more sure about my style and how I present myself, what I like and don't like, what I choose to buy or not buy. I like drinking, but not too much - because I also learned this year what happens when you drink on an empty stomach.  28 feels like adulthood, like what "my twenties" were supposed to be like. 29 feels both like I'm an adult, and I'm still a child. 

What brought you the most joy?

I appreciate the value of friends more than ever. I remember my 'lone wolf' days at the beginning of college, and even when I graduated and started my first job. I felt self sufficient, capable, independent. But the joy I feel now after a weekend with IU Epic friends, or a night having dinner and board games with City Reformed friends, or a chill hang with MBA friends, is...so life-giving. 

What matters differently now than a year ago?

Life is just a series of difficult decisions it seems. At 28 we decided what job offer to take and where to go post grad. At the time it was such a gargantuan decision, and now we're really seeing the pieces fall into place. God providing a home, God setting me up with a promising role, God providing more than we could have hoped or imagined for. 

What are you struggling with the most right now?

I write this in the hotel room of Courtyard West Palm Beach, as we look for a new apartment or condo in Florida. Florida is not where I expected to be at 29, but neither did I expect myself to like renewable energy so much, so here we are. There are a lot of unknowns this next year. A new job, a new city, a new church, new friends, and maybe adding new members to our family. Change isn't necessarily hard for me - but there's always so much sentimental grief over how things will never be the same, how this era or period will be just that, a time that you move on from.

Family has also been a source of tension - why? Not exactly sure. Dealing with my mother in this new stage of life without my dad, dealing with the whole family without a feeling of internal support from my dad, having to shoulder the burden of family vacations in its entirety. I don't enjoy it at all, though I'm also not sure what I can do about it.

I will conclude this rambling here, else this will never get published.