21: Adulthood and an Open Love Letter to My Friends

I love love love birthdays, mostly when they are in context of others. I love it from the moment you book a big reservation to the frantic dash to arrive on time. And honestly, we need more of this- independent of special occasions (friendsgiving anyone?) Though I like to keep it pretty low key, this year was the big two-one. Suddenly, I was going to be granted the key to a whole new world of nightlife and be passed the menu to a dizzying array of garnished cocktails. As exciting as this may be, entering this new era of my life was terrifying. Am I where I should be as a 21 year old? Have I been spending my time wisely? What am I expected to accomplish to fulfill the steps that will promise me the career I envision having? I don’t know the answers to these and this is what makes everything such a big question mark. And it is so so easy to let this catch up to you and really shake you to your core.

This is where you guys come in. I know that despite feeling and knowing all these things, you make it all worth it because much like many other things, we are matching in these anxieties. How fun! I am so lucky to be surrounded with so much love and support; friendship is truly so beautiful and probably parallels the same kind of satisfaction one gets from matching tattoos or simultaneously taking a final in the same classroom despite being in different classes (honor code in effect). It is because of you guys that I get faster celebrity updates than from news sources themselves. I love staying up past 2 AM to watch dog videos and being a mall rat on multiple days of the week and crowdsourcing donuts and trying not to laugh while facemasking and shotgunning la croix water and enabling each other to indulge in things to take care of ourselves and passing along product recommendations and listening to the same song on repeat and facetiming while being in the same building and picking the almonds out of almond joys and owning matching pastel sweatshirts and driving around in the dark for soft serve and using the same lipgloss tube and calling customer service for each other and illuminating pictures with the finger light for the perfect candlelit glow and cutting hair in the dorm room and coincidentally wearing the same nail color and having shower conversations and sharing wardrobes and making the best dining hall hot sandwiches and only needing to travel vertically to visit and learning about each other’s specific preferences/likes/dislikes to craft the perfect gift because this is the beauty of blossoming friendships and I am obsessed with growing with you guys. I love that college is the vessel that enables us to see each other at any hour of the day and only at a moment’s notice. Cheers to learning so much more! 21 is wonderful and it’s all because of you. I love you all.

Soft serve at Dairy Joy! Have been on a quest for soft serve locations in Boston and this one was highly anticipated.

Coming of age apparently means learning that Chick Fil A has real chicken in their nuggets. Amazing.

Affectionately dubbed “bad box”, “bad box” is not bad at all.

21 still means you need your friends to sleep next to you. We had to scurry through the hallway with Taylor’s mattress to make this one happen.

Bundled up because it was frigid (as one would expect on the coast) but so beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQBwrsElVog

Aquitaine (South End), will write a post later about how this family of restaurants is perfection.

Gaslight, the sister to Aquitaine, where I celebrated with a lot of people I love.