Reflections: Tribute to 26

I turn 27 in a few days

...and I am not quite sure what to be more anxious about. Is it the memories leading up to this moment, or the ones still waiting ahead of me?

Life can be funny sometimes. One minute you are arguing with classmates about how not to miss the school bus; the next, you are sitting quietly with yourself, weighing which life decision is most likely to secure safe ground for the next five years or more.

You see, my 20-year-old self would never have agreed with me if I had told her that I would be changing careers at 25. My 24-year-old self would never have sat comfortably with the reality I am living in right now. And yet here I am, both of those women folded into this one.

In a conversation with my siblings today, they remarked that I am the kind of person who loves trying new things regardless of what is at stake. One of them went further, pointing out that almost every device I have ever bought for myself has been unconventional, except the mobile phone I currently use. For context, I have owned quite a number of mobile phones from brands that most people have never heard of, from Bluegate to Feropower, etc., and I found genuine fulfillment in using them. In exploring unfamiliar choices without counting the cost.

It was somewhat satisfying to hear, because it echoed something the woman who runs the stall down the road once said about me, this time as it concerned snacks.

I do not typically lean toward comfort. I have always found the idea of “comfort food” oddly unsatisfying, which is the reason I do not have a “favourite” across many parts of my life. This also means I can stand in front of a menu for far too long, restless and unwilling to choose the obvious thing.

And yet, for all my appetite for the unfamiliar, planning is something I have always been good at. For example, my 20-year-old self had her five-year plan mapped out. My 25-year-old self had one too. But as I approach 27, I find myself beginning to tilt, not away from the plan, but toward restructuring it.

What I am learning to do now is plan within the plan, recognising that I am the chief entrepreneur of my own life and that not everything will arrive on schedule or in the shape I imagined. To me, what matters now is understanding that the plan is not the destination; it is more like a living document. It is something to return to, revise, and trust again.

So I am unsure what 27 will make of my undying love for the unfamiliar. But wherever it finds me, and whatever it asks of me, I am certain it will take the parts of me that are still unrefined and shape them into something sturdier. Something better.

xoxo.

P.S: The attached music is my favourite song at the moment.