I recently celebrated my 29th birthday and thought I'd share 29 things that made me happy over the past year. I'm a big birthday person, really, I just love to celebrate. There's something so pure and easy in celebrating oneself and others. Any reason for a little fête, am I right? Any who, I hope you enjoy reading this list and that it makes you reflect on your own year.


  1. Biking on the beach in my swimsuit
    • I started my 28th year in a swimsuit biking along the Florida coast. It wasn't planned, just what I wanted to do when I woke up. A little joie de vivre to set my new year right.
  2. Celebrating my US Citizenship with my family
  3. Creating space for creativity. Weather it's reading, painting, journaling
  4. Fostering my pet turtle, Lincoln. We were together for 4 glorious months
  5. Celebrating Thanksgiving on the beach with the one I love the most
  6. Writing consistently in my journal
  7. Getting the job I wanted
  8. Living mindfully and reflectively
  9. Time with my family, especially my nieces and nephews. 
  10. Celebrating family and friends accomplishments, big and small
  11. Welcoming the new year with my family
  12. Achieving one of my biggest goals of living in my own place
  13. Being consistent with my prayer and Bible study
  14. Walks and meditative moments at the beach
  15. Road tripping from Ohio to Florida and driving through the Rocky Mountains
  16. Taking my first pottery class
  17. Spending Sunday mornings in the local botanical garden
  18. Making space for visiting local museums
  19. Walking in the rainy "forest" near my house
  20. Taking little road trips just to visit bookstores
  21. Farmer's Markets
  22. Treating myself to a bouquet of flowers every so often
  23. Celebrating my friend's PhD graduation
  24. Smelling all the insanely fragrant roses in Raleigh, NC's arboretum
  25. My first Hillsong concert
  26. Traveling solo to DC; I seriously NEED to move there
  27. Taking my mom to the Lion King on Broadway
  28. Taking my nieces and nephew to their first football games
  29. Celebrating and loving me
I'm very introspective and being about a week into this new year, Chapter 29, I can't wait to see what God has in store. I know through the highs and lows, he is faithful and will be with me either way it goes. Last year, was a very DIFFICULT year for me. As I look back I'm blessed to see his blessings far outweigh the burdens. I have ONE major goal I pray to achieve this new year. Keep me in your prayers.

Thank you for reading.

Faithfully,

Marie