January 2025

On a long life, 2025 goals, and other good things.

Image above: a little “matchbook” paper pad I made over 5 years ago based on a quote that has really stuck with me

Life Is Long

When I was working at Pandora, sometime around 2017, a female executive called a “lean in” sort of meeting and gave all of us female tech staff a sort of inspirational pep talk. While most of the talk is a little funny to look back on in this post-girlboss era, one thing she said really stuck with me. When asked what advice she would give young women like us about our future career paths, she thought for a moment before saying:
“Always remember: Life is long. People are always saying ‘life is short,’ but really it is what you make of it. If you make the most out of every day and savor moments while you’re in them, life will slow down for you.”

This of course probably isn’t exactly what she said, but it’s what I remember and what I’ve tried to remind myself ever since. “Life is long” has become the mantra that is constantly running in the back of my head; I repeat it while meditating, I remember it while pushing through challenging moments, and I have to say, that woman was right— life really does slow down for you if you let it.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s next in my life and have worried about choosing the “wrong” path. I’m feeling called to try something new, but saying yes to one thing does naturally mean saying no to another— will closing one door be worth whatever’s on the other side of the next one? I’m seeing lots of my friends making similar big choices, like switching careers, getting married, having kids, moving countries— so many big wonderful terrifying choices! Some seem to be so confident in their decisions but without fail if I ask about their choice, it’s much more complicated than it seems from the outside.

It’s easy to get lost in the back and forth of the should-I-shouldn’t-I ping pong match but then I remember: life is long. I can make a decision today and then change my mind again. I’ve always thought that I wanted to "find happiness”— to “arrive” somewhere that I’m meant to be, but the older I get the more I realize that the cliche saying really is true: it’s all about the journey. Things keep changing, we keep changing, and we have the opportunity to reinvent ourselves each and every moment.

Anyway, I don’t know who else needs to hear this right now but remember: life is long. Bad things will happen, but then good things will happen too, so we should probably stop worrying so much and keep our bodies flexible to the twists that will never stop coming our way and keep our senses active so we don’t forget to smell the flowers.

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Some Little Pictures:

(from top left to bottom right)

1. Amanda Mijangos

2. Sean Suchara

3. Maggie Macdonald

4. Jonathan David Lange

5. Natascha Maksimovic

6. Parul Arora

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Image above: a little drawing for an LA fires fundraiser that a friend is working on. More details soon; it was fun to do some vector work again!

January Playlist

I’m back on my ASMR and audiobook bullshit ya’ll, sorry! It seems silly to keep this segment here when half the time I don’t actually have a playlist of music to share but I guess it is still fun to share some things I’ve been listening to? I always hope that it inspires you to share what you’ve been listening to with me too <3 (thanks to everyone who has sent me recs— my favorite mail to receive!).

So anyways, here is my “playlist” this month:

• Basically have been living in variations of this winter wonderland while I work

• I love Isla ASMR so you know I listened to her latest as soon as it dropped— love an America’s Next Top Model theme

• Also loved listening to Trisha be very disappointed by her new tiny pink purse

• Listened to Margo’s Got Money Troubles on my recent flight— I really liked it! The audiobook is read by Elle Fanning which is fun and I think a good fit (PS just learned I guess she is going to be starring in a TV adaptation of this so makes sense!). Excited to read something read by Maggie Gyllenhaal next who I hear is a great reader.

• Also been listening to The God of the Woods— something about the constant time/character shifts in this one isn’t really working for me in audio format so can’t say I recommend it, but stay tuned because I’m not done yet.

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Image above: my 2025 vision board, featuring healthy foods, stretchy fitness, and working ladies (and of course some little words of inspiration)

Recent Work: 2025 Vision

Yes I am still picking a word of the year even as social media seems to be pushing us all to rebel against anything even slightly resembling a new year’s resolution (because we’re all deleting our socials this year anyways, right? I accidentally lost my tik tok because my phone automatically unloaded it when it went dark and I feel free). I won’t pretend to have any idea what this year has in store for me but I do know that I’d like to shift out of dreaming mode and into doing mode, so I picked the word “CREATE” to focus on. Honestly I don’t really care what I create as long as I’m working with my heart, my brain, and my hands and ideally seeing projects through to completion as much as possible.

While coming up with my word this year, I thought it would be fun to look back at the words I’ve picked in years past— I hadn’t actually done that before so that was pretty interesting! Here is my list:

2024: Simple
2023: Trust
2022: Body
2021: Here
2020: Light
2019: Grounded
2018: Less
2017: Fantasy
2016: Hustle

It’s so fun looking back at these now and reflecting on how right/wrong they turned out to feel (“Light” for 2020 is especially funny to me but it really is the word I needed to remember that year— January 2020 me really knew what March 2020 me needed).

Is anyone else still doing this? Leave your word in the comments!

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Some Other Good Things

• This article, which finally got me to subscribe to The Atlantic. Worth it! RIP David

• This visualization exercise shared by lovely artist Rebecca Green in which she invites you to imagine a perfect day in 5 years. Helpful and insightful!

• Happy Lunar New Year! I heard this year marks a whole new “generation” (Gen Beta— hopefully they change that because so sad to be a beta, but idk maybe it’s cool) and I hear that snakes are lucky.

• The Planta App is actually sort of changing my life— finally a way for Adam and I to coordinate plant watering!! It also has a “light meter” feature to let you know if your plants are getting enough light and a “diagnostic” scanner to tell you what to do if your plant is sick. Honestly blown away.

• The “Tumblr Era” playlist that a client showed me. Have you ever had a teenager ask you what Tumblr was? I have never felt so old. Also love the “was” as if it doesn’t still exist
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Thanks for reading – see you next month!