birthday check in: so how was being 24?

another year has gone by. there have been ups and downs, but i have to say it has been a really good one.

first of all, quick update on the last birthday: i decided to bake my own cake and had a blast with it! It was a three-tier carrot cake and nardos did a lot of heavy lifting there. Just a few days later, i found out that sneaky nardos and joe had planned a whole surprise birthday party/dinner for me, complete with a second carrot cake and a bottle of a certain young lady’s favourite “elephant-juice”. so wonderful!

A lot of my life has changed over the last 12 months. i have met incredible people and made great strides, both professionally and personally. i did a whole “happy girl summer” thing last summer where i met some lovely people, had plans with friends on most weekends, visited people, and i just let myself enjoy the warm weather.

i went to two weddings over the summer and i was the maid-of-honour at the first one. I definitely cried watching my high school and college friend walk down the aisle. congratulations to both Mrs Sarah Birdsall and Mrs Silin Li!

i have also accumulated at least five burn scars from cooking/baking over the last year. Most are quite small, but the largest and oldest is about two and a half inches long and one inch wide – i’m quite fond of it. i baked lots of yummy things, from my first somewhat round batch of cookies, to nardos’ favourite, the pumpkin loaf, to most recently (this week actually!) my own favourite, the banana cake. speaking of the kitchen, i completed my vegetarian challenge, and had my first piece of chicken in a year on december 1 at bbq chicken on whitney ave.

i travelled to Zimbabwe for the first time since the pandemic began and i spent all of five and a half weeks weeks there. It was the first time my siblings and i had been in the same place since my brother’s wedding in 2018, and this time we had 3 new children in the family, with a second child on the way for my brother and his wife (and that baby is due in the next few days!).

i spent a few days with one of my absolute best friends and sister, Matida, who had recently gotten married! A whole Mrs now! I had not seen her in three years so it was such a blessing to just be in the same place with her, to share with each other in person how our lives were transforming and how God was just showing up for us!

i also spent time with old friends at Lomagundi College, and sadly ended up attending a funeral service while there as one of the founding members of the school passed away. Lomagundi is a particularly important school in our family. my personal link to the school is that i tutored at Lomagundi back in 2016 in the time between finishing high school and starting college. i made some great friends while there and i continue to enjoy visiting them whenever i get the chance.

work-wise, i moved from my job as a research assistant at the Yale Child Study Center to a job (again) as a research assistant/Tobin Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Yale School of Management working for the accounting group.

i quickly learned that accounting research is something that appeals to me so much so that i applied to three Ph.D. programs in the field and was admitted into two of them. i am very excited and blessed to say that i will be moving to Philadelphia in the late summer to begin my Ph.D. in Accounting at Wharton, the Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. i feel very undeserving and humbled in many ways, and o continue to see the hand of God in the path that Love has carved for me.

i have made really great friends with the other pre-docs i work with. Going into the office and seeing these faces on most days of the week has been so much fun. my bosses are also pretty incredible and i am saddened to be leaving in a few months.

this last year i have also been confronted with and continue to work through many insecurities, again both professionally and personally, but i think through it all God is teaching me to run the race in front of me, to run my own race and trust God to land my feet on solid ground with each and every step. i really am growing more comfortable in my own skin and learning to acknowledge these insecurities but not let them hinder me from doing what i want to do or being where i need to be. i know this verse is largely referring to enduring in the faith but really i have found God encouraging me to keep on with the things in my life in general and i trust God to continue on with me as i conclude my 25^th year and start year #26.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:1-3 NIV

year 25 has been great! i have laughed a lot, i have loved a lot, and i been loved so much by people very dear to my heart. i have grown more into my own skin, and i look forward continuing the journey of discovering who God has fashioned me to be. a LOT more has happened this year but i just can’t write it all here without making this post insufferably long. i will, however, do my regular shout outs to people. some names may be surprising to find here, but i have learned never to look back with regret at times/people in my life that in the season made me happy/smile! i’ll do slightly extended shout outs for a few people who have been constants in my daily life in the last year, so here we go:

first of all, shout out to Nardos, my best friend whom i have found home in. i am very deeply saddened that we will be going separate ways this year, but i know the distance will not dissolve our friendship. shout out to Phyllis – i know that regardless of where we go in life, even if we one day grow apart, you are someone i would quickly drop what i’m doing and show up for. you’re my sister. shout out to Joe – you are someone i have admired for a very long time and i wish so much joy for you in your life. your friendship over the years, especially the last two years has been very meaningful to me.

shout out to Theresa. girl. what a friend. we have been up, and man we have been down! but i am so grateful for your friendship. you are one of those few friends that i am certain know will be around to the end and i am so grateful for you. and thank you for introducing me to the enneagram! shout out to Mrs Birdsall!! Sarah, i feel so humbled, honoured, blessed for the ways in which you have just opened up your life to me. when we first met as little form 1s at Arundel i would have never imagined this is where we would be 12 years later. my mind can only wonder where life will take us another 12 years from now.

okay. shout out to the office homies Kevin, José, Laura, Eric, Arthur, and Flint. Shout out to Roy, Isaac, Sam, Naima, Nabor, and Alison Joy. the Arundel girls Ropa, Paida & Tarisai. the dinner squad, Mohit, Eunice, Nadia! one of the bestest workmates and sweetest ever, Lou-Ann!! my family – my brother, my sister-in-love Tendai (thank you for loving me so much), my sister, my hubby Regi and most notably the babies!! all my cousins, aunts and uncles, my nieces and nephews – you guys hold my heart in a way no one else could ever. i am certain i am forgetting lots of people who have made the last year notable, but that’s not to say my heart is not grateful. it really is. alright…i am certain i am forgetting lots of people who have made the last year notable, but that’s not to say my heart is not grateful. it really is. alright…

y’all, i have a whole 25 years of life under my belt now! What a blessing! Cheers to many more fun, youthful, and Jesus-filled years!

now here are a bunch of other pictures i just wanted to include in this post