the best birthday of my life

I was sitting at my desk yesterday around 3pm, only just starting to do some work after a birthday party was thrown by my office in complete Michael Scott style, between three bouquets of flowers next to my computer, two packages, and a flood of notifications and texts on my phone wishing me happy birthday when it just sort of snowballed at once how remarkable it was to be sitting there. Last year, I had a good birthday, don't get me wrong. I had the low key of all low key summers and it was good. But a year later and I'm sitting in an office as an intern having the time of my life in SEATTLE living a dream and the people in my life are nothing short of amazing hard working people I'm proud to be friends with- how is this my life just a year later?!

I think the biggest things I've taken away from being twenty are two things and they're both two simple things I learned the hard way, as I always learn these things. Your life shouldn't be just okay. You should love the things you're doing and the people you're around. You should love every day for not just the big picture of things but for what your life is now. You get out of life what you put into it and I just wasn't putting much into it. I was thumbing through my college years thinking that what I was doing would get me a well paying job and eventual happiness when all along I knew that I should have been studying writing. I should have been starting on my life and happiness then instead of thinking of happiness as something to achieve later. There's having a goal and working towards something you want so I realize the big things don't come easy, but you also never know if everything is going to go as planned. And if you don't like the baby steps and doing the ground "grunt" work, how are you going to get there!? I get excited about writing a tweet at my internship or just writing a flyer. It's hard to be away from my friends and family but I like what I'm doing every day. I hated reading my biology textbooks. Secondly, surround yourself by people who make you a better person that you just feel better around.

Twenty was messy. I had a lot of figuring out to do as I'm sure I'll have more to sort out later. But for the moment, I've gotten this far and it's a lot further than I was last year. I've figured out where my potential can take me in the future and suddenly my life feels limitless as opposed to restricted. I got myself to Seattle for the summer. And the people I'm around are motivated inspiring people. And while I'm laying on the cheese factor, it's because of those people, those 38 MCAT scoring, Seattle Photography Intern working, and Hawaiian living beings, that I took some risks, too. 

I'm a proud cat loving creative writing major and I love my ordinary life and all the grunt work in it and I love it now. 

my intern friends! 

after this, my whole office sang and we had cake. i love my office.