Notes from my birthday

And a gift from me to you.

This week, I turned 23.

This is baby me under the Dodoma sun, as happy as I could be!

In one way or another it feels promising, as if 23 had been waiting all its life to finally have me breathing into its space. Reflecting on this past year, here is a list of thoughts and lessons my 22 year old self will tell 23 year old me. I hope it resonates or inspires you in any way.

• No headache is “normal.” Sometimes it needs a good amount of sleep to make it better, other times some painkillers will help, and other times my dear, it’s a whole bag of red blood cells you need transfused into your body.

• I know one thing that has been able to calm you more than most things this year. It’s a shower at night with a soft indie playlist on. Do it often.

• Allow yourself to be loved.

• You might think you made your worst mistake this past year, but have you ever paused to consider if it might be less of a loss and more of a release?

• You went to an island all by yourself this year, solo travel spirit rising. Now you know, it’s possible.

• It’s about high-time you get your nose pierced, you have dreamt of it since you turned 18. If they lash out at you basing on religious or cultural values, you can always run back to Ezekiel 16 verse 12, where God says “I also put a ring in your nostril and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.”

• You heard about Goal setting versus Growth setting. One of your goals this year was to know how to swim, and while that goal is not reached yet, you have learned how to kick and propel forward a bit even if you are still holding onto a swimming float. You have learned how to breathe for a couple seconds underwater. That’s growth, growth-setting realized.

• Going to a bookstore and not buying anything is never a waste, cause BOOM! you open a book and read one sentence that you hang on to for the rest of that season of your life. Like when you bumped onto Matt Haig’s The Comfort book, and read “Nothing is stronger than a small hope that doesn’t give up.”

• Your songs are beautiful, because they are honest. When you feel afraid they might laugh at your songs, you can always remember Hozier’s lyrics when he sings “You don’t have to sing it nice, but honey sing it strong, at best you’ll find a little remedy, at worst the world will sing along”

• Your voice is sweet, so sing. You never know whose life you might be saving, when they hear your voice and decide to believe in the sweetness of life again.

My birthday gift from me to you, is a snippet of one of my latest songs. I wrote this recently when I found myself in a very moody gloomy feel, even though the sun was shining its best outside. It’s called “Meet me here.” This is one of the things I want to do more of in my 23rd year of life, sharing my original songs. Cheers to a new chapter!