Completing 24 Years

I like how they count age in Korea. You are 1 year old the day you are born, which makes sense. You are starting your first year of life. With Western age, we only count a year as "lived" once all 365 days have passed. I'm turning 24 tomorrow, which means I have successfully completed 24 years of life on Earth and am working my way towards 25. 

I think from now on, my birthday blog posts will be written from a place of accomplishment. I completed another year! I made it! I'm still here! I mean all of that in the least morbid way possible. The fact that nothing truly bad happened to me last year? Amazing.

The gratefulness I feel for my life is overwhelming sometimes. Everything I'm about to say will sound so corny, but it's all 100% genuine.

I truly didn't know my heart could handle this much love. I love my family. My friends. All 519 of my students. All the countries I've lived in and visited. I'm one of the luckiest people in the world.

I'm meeting up with my friends tonight for my birthday (tomorrow, my actual birthday, is a national holiday. God bless Korea) and these are some A+ people. I know I trust way too easily but I think I'm a pretty good judge of character and I know for a fact I want these people in my life for the rest of my life. They're truly, genuinely GOOD. And so funny my abs and cheeks often hurt from hanging out with them. It's hard to believe that at this time last year, I didn't know any of these people existed. 

Life is so, so good right now. I never thought I'd enjoy getting older, but I'm very excited to be 24 and to live another year. 

22 things I need to stop doing

Photo by Hans Vivek

A week ago I turned 22, but in order to solidify my new age, I must write about it. A lot of people do the "22, 25, 30, etc. things I've learned" posts to celebrate their birthdays, but honestly, I feel too young for that.  Sure, I definitely learned a lot while living 8 months abroad, but I also realize I still have a lot of learning left to do. I need to let my lessons sit and marinate for awhile before I put them in a definitive list for the entire internet to see. (Lol "entire internet", I sure do think highly of myself.)

So here are 22 things I need to STOP doing in order to become a full-fledged adult. It's a lot easier to point out my bad habits than to correct them, but this post is at least one step in the right direction.

1. Caring about what other people think.
2. Texting guys I don't actually care about just because I'm bored. 
3. Eating a whole ice cream carton in one sitting. 
4. Using "hey I walk a lot!" as an excuse not to exercise. 
5. Reading too many books at once. Either finish the dang book or decide not to finish it and give it to someone who will actually read it. 
6. Eating canned soup for dinner when I have ingredients for a quick and easy meal in the pantry. 
7. Hate-reading someone's blog.
8. Hate-scrolling through someone's Instagram. (Don't do these things! They're not good for you!)
9. Using "my hair is dirty" as an excuse to not go out. Just wash your hair! It's not that hard!
10. Letting my tank get dangerously empty before I refill it. 
11. Complaining about how bored I am while also not reaching out to anyone. 
12. Extensively plan trips that I have no hope of taking anytime soon. It's a waste of time to plan that much detail, Victoria. 
13. Talking myself out of things just because I get nervous. 
14. Worry over why someone doesn't like me. It literally does not matter. 
15. Starting a language on Duolingo and doing too much at once then burning out and quitting.
16. Getting a caramel macchiato at Dunkin Donuts when I have a PERFECTLY GOOD Keurig and percolator at home. 
17. Not journaling because I'm "too tired" or "nothing happened that today". Something happens everyday girl!!! Write about it!!!
18. Chugging Dr. Pepper like type II diabetes doesn't run in the family. 
19. Hitting snooze too many times.
20. Thinking I will one day actually eat breakfast at the appropriate breakfast time. 
21. Drinking coffee when I KNOW it'll give me the runs. 
22. Pretending I ever think about anything besides One Direction and the five boys' individual careers. 

Happy birthday to me! Cheers!