As I’m ending 2023 I would like to share little words of gratitude and encouragement for everyone. 2023 has been a year of so many untold stories for me. The highs have been pretty high and the lows have been quite low. My stories can fit a whole book but what remained with me throughout the year is how much you need your community. 2023 has thought me you don’t need to go through life alone and it’s okay to ask help. Friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances have helped me in small and big ways everyday. As someone who struggles to ask help and who tends to be independent, it was more than uncomfortable to share my stories, struggles and wins as openly as I did this year. But I realized it only made me gain support and didn’t make me a failure or a burden as I usually thought. My community showed me so much love, patience, understanding and gave me resilience for all that happened in those 365 days. They sat with me in my darkest days, cheered with me when I won big and small things, advised me when it felt like I was lost and listened to me when I needed to vent and gain clarity. They thought me I don’t always need to care for others but others can care for me too. They thought me asking for help is a sign of strength. They didn’t make me feel small but rather built me up from inside out.

And so if I had to advise anyone it’s to build your community, to be vulnerable, to know you can’t do it all and to apperciate those who are in your life.

I am not gonna wish for a better year. I am not gonna say 2024 is my year. I am not gonna make plans for the new age. I am not gonna conquer all my fears in 2024. I won’t fulfill all that I set out to do in 2024. I’ll lose friends and a little part of me in 2024. I will cry and have dark days in 2024. I will be challenged in old and new ways in the new year. My wishes and desires may not come true. 2024 may not be my best year. I might not travel as much as I want in 2024. I might not help as many people as I want. I might not get my dream job, husband, car, body and life in 2024. I might love the wrong person. I might lose the ones I love.

This is not me being negative but rather telling myself that even despite all of these, I am worth celebrating. I am worth living and experiencing life. It is okay not to win all the time. It is okay to lay low and learn lessons at time. So despite so many negative possibilities for 2024, I will step into it with grace, ease and gentleness. I’ll step into it with an open heart ready to relearn old lessons and also get to explore new challenges. I’ll set into 2024 with all the unknowns, with all the heartbreak from 2023 and with all the fear I acquired from being alive close to 3 decades.

Happy New Year! 2024!