Juliana Moves

It’s my birthday today! Yay! I’ve always loved my birthday. It’s normally a lovely day weather-wise and May 28 just sounds like a great day. Today it’s cool and gray and rainy, but I don’t mind.

I start a new decade today, too. I can’t believe I’m 30! I’m stoked. I’m just getting started. For the last few weeks I’ve been jotting down some life lessons and general truths that I’ve learned over the last decade or so.

Just some tidbits I’ve learned about life…

1. Cleanliness is truly next to godliness.
2. Go outside go outside go outside go outside.
3. There are very few aches that nine hours of sleep can’t fix. 
4. Not checking your bank account doesn’t change your spending habits.
5. The coolest people just do the cool things they say they want to do.
6. You’re never too old to play.
7. Learning to not take things personally is extremely hard but critically important.
8. Everything gets less scary the moment you start.
9. I will never get an idiom right.
10. Any beach trip is incomplete without a cooler full of sandwiches, Cheetos, and cold grapes or cherries.
11. Wiping down your shower every time you use it actually does keep it cleaner.
12. Do NOT use toothpaste to address a zit. (Especially if it’s by your mouth because the skin is sensitive and you WILL end up with a chemical burn the size of a nickel. Ask me how I know.)
13. Some moments demand to be savored.
14. Your work is not your life. Enjoy yourself, get paid, try to make a difference, but ultimately? Screw it!
15. You are never ever done learning.
16. That SOB will never get their comeuppance and that’s just life.
17. Chocolate ice cream with Oreos mixed in is a supreme ice cream combo. 
18. Reading nonfiction is fun when you read about stuff genuinely interesting to you – not just to seem smart.
19. Packing some snacks is always the right idea.
20. You don’t actually want that! You just want whatever fake reality the ad sold you.
21. Community is everything.
22. Trying something actually is cool, even if it doesn’t go well.
23. It’s almost always better to do it now rather than putting it off. A hard pill to swallow, but it’s true!
24. The Pomodoro productivity method actually does work.
25. Dancing around your house is healthy and healing!
26. Open your windows whenever you can.
27. CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY! I’ll never understand the aversion to birthdays. Congrats on living!
28. Basically nothing you see on social media is real.
29. Make eye contact with people you’re speaking with, however brief the exchange may be. 
30. “We’re all just walking each other home.”

I feel pretty confident that this year is going to be awesome – no matter what it brings. And I’m pretty psyched for this decade ahead, too.

Love,

JN