I’m sure you already have my birthday on the calendar and sent me a card, but I thought I would just post this blog to remind you on January 19th a star was born. Sorry, but I love my birthday! My birthday has slowly become a birthday month. And I hope I take after my sister soon celebrating my half birthday. I love what birthdays represent, a whole day celebrating life with all their friends and family with cake and drinks, and I hope confetti. It’s also a time for people to gush all about how much they love you, and can also be a great time to reflect on how this year changed and challenged you. And with another year comes reflecting on what I loved about being 23 and getting excited for another trip around the sun. So here is what 23 has taught me….

1.Busy Life vs. Full Life. I chose a full life this year. I was looking at my calendar that was packed with thing after thing that I felt like I HAD to be at and thought to myself, how much of this actually makes me happy? Or is it just keeping me busy? So I have chose to slow down this year and leave more time in my days to just enjoy life.

2.How to cook! Kyle and I cook almost every night of the week now. We haven’t ordered pizza this whole year, It’s incredible!

3.That I am not the match maker I want to be.

4.Not to stress brides out with what I think their day needs to be, and just let them have their own damn day.

5. How harsh our trendy clothes are on the environment. And how I can make a difference by not buying into it.

6.How to set up a budget and stick to it.

7.What it looks like to stand up for other women, and my own definition of being a feminist.

8.How to take pictures of my loved ones way more! And also the power of printing out your pictures to to keep memories alive!

9.How to be a daughter in law.

10.How to not hate grocery shopping.

11.Community over competition every time in the photography industry. With this one I think I also need to apologize if any of my words ever hurt anyone’s feelings, because I was coming from a place of insecurities about my business and probably very jealous of your business. I now want to send out any help I can to other photographers, give out recommendations of other photographers, and create a space that we can work together and be happy for other photographers triumphs.

12.Living minimally doesn’t mean having less.

13.Who I hang around reflects where I will go, so I should always have someone in my group that I admire or that is smarter then me to push me to become a better person.

14.How saying, “I am really busy” as an excuse to not hanging out really hurts friends feelings and makes them feel like they are not worth my time.

15.Don’t have such high expectations for the holidays, just enjoy them as they come.

16.I learned how to read for enjoyment this year!

17.How to manage my phone better. Now I am only on my phone for 1.5 hours. When before I was on it for almost 4 hours a day!

18.When I found myself negativity comparing my life to people on instagram I just unfollow them now and have so much more joy.

19.It’s okay to stay home on a weekend night and do NOTHING.

20.What it’s like living with a man…

21.I really started asking myself when I was getting annoyed, angry, and even happy, Why am I feeling this? And what brought it on? And then tried to better describe my feelings. This was huge for me this year.

22. Leaving my 9 to 5 and become a business owner was not what I thought it would be.The daily highs and lows of being an business owner have been so hard, but I’m proud of myself for pushing thru all the pain and getting to see the joyful moments.

23.Fueling my body! I treated my body horribly up unto this year. Now I make sure that I make drinking water a priority, I cook meals with either a veggie or fruit on side for breakfast lunch and dinner, and I am starting to see a doctor regularly. 

Things I want to learn and work on with being 24

1. Remembering people’s names better.

2.Learn how to french braid my own hair.

3.Not pick up apart my looks and weight, and just use positive words to talk about myself.

4.Ask people with different political views, outlooks, religions, and different walks of life than mine about their personal story.

5.Start carrying my camera around more to capture things just for fun that inspire me.