24 Soul-Searching Questions I Still Have On The Eve Of My 24th Birthday

There’s something about birthdays that always seems to bring us some of our deepest, most ridiculous thoughts: How did we do this year? Are we the kings and queens of the world yet? Did we cross off everything we ever wanted to accomplish off our to-do list? Am I the next Beyoncé?

Nope.

No. no. no and also no.

Every birthday I look back and think of all the things I was able to do and conquer. But this year I decided to do things a little differently and instead embrace the questions – embrace all of the things I’m still clueless about. Embrace the fact that there’s nothing wrong in feeling lost while attempting to be an “adult.” Embrace the fact that we might never find our answers.

And accept that maybe that’s the whole point – to seek and to wonder without a destination.

This my friends, is embracing 24 (and the many things I might never understand):

1. How do we let go of the things we can’t change?

2. How can we be comfortable in our own skin?

3. How do we live in the now and forget the past and future?

4. Why would anyone voluntarily drink decaf coffee (gasp)?

5. How can we be successful at relationships?

6. Why do people spend so much time on hatred and divide instead of uniting the humanity we’re meant to be?

7. Why is it so hard to be vulnerable?

8. What do you do while people awkwardly sing happy birthday to you?

9. Why do we focus so much on what we need and not on appreciating what we already have?

10. How do stocks really work?? (But also do I really need to know this?)

11. Why is it so hard to take our own advice?

12. Why must pizza have so many calories? I. can’t. even

13. Why is it so easy to accept everyone’s flaws but our own?

14. Why is it so hard to move on from people who have wronged us?

15. When will it become acceptable to be ourselves without fearing the judgment of others?

16. Why hasn’t Ellen DeGeneres run for president yet?

17. Why are things always so much easier in hindsight?

18. Why do we let other people’s lives dictate the way we should live ours?

19. Why are we so afraid of change?

20. Why won’t my Bumble BFF reply?? (am I doing this right?)

21. How and why has technology ironically caused so much distance between people?

22. Why do we focus so much on the end result and not on the progress we make while we get there?

23. What is gluten and why are we all running away from it?

24. Why do we continue to measure our worth from the outside and not the inside?

The point is, there will never be a time or a birthday when we don’t have questions, unfinished business, confusing feelings and existential thoughts. And that’s okay.

It’s okay not to know what we’re doing.
It’s okay not to have it all together.

And it’s definitely okay to eat some extra gluten-filled cake and welcome another year with open arms.

Because that’s exactly what I intend to do.
Cheers to 24!