Welp, today is my birthday. Looking back, 48 was quite a year by the numbers:

• Left my office in L.A. on March 11 and never went back
• Voted twice (I mean the primary and the general, what’d you think I meant?)
• Beat one big scary bully with my brain and my ability to build strong bonds with people; then rolled up my sleeves to see if my allies and I really could do it better like we said
• Cannot even count my consumption of anxiety-driven Oreos; on a related note…
• Gained 15 pounds, lost 7 of them again (so far)
• Used 18 yards of burlap and one string of twinkle lights to turn part of the garage into a place for practicing yoga with Adriene
• Hosted zero houseguests, calculated zero probability of near-term future houseguests, therefore IKEA-makeovered the guest room as my full-time office (don’t worry fam, there’s a sofabed for your long-term future visits <3)
• Averaged a 35-day menstrual cycle, by which I mean anywhere from 22-45 days as my 28-day clockwork suddenly decided to wind down
• Flew a total of zero miles after canceling my March trip to see my mom; missed my mom an incalculable amount
• Put a total of about 1,100 miles on my car, vs an estimated 14,000 last year
• Got back on my bike in September and logged a total of about 225 miles since then (probably more than total driving since Sept)
• Took my coffee for a walk in Beloved Neighborhood Park an estimated 328 times
• Cried after grocery shopping at least twice, because I used to love a good leisurely friendly trip to the store
• Wrote three dozen of these blog posts
• Missed out on giving and receiving about a million hugs
• Tried to put 100% of my heart and soul into pushing philanthropy toward the possibility of permanent change as White people apparently all of a sudden started being able to see racial injustice
• Learned more important life-changing wisdom from my friends’ posts during this year of anguished outcry than I did in four years at Harvard
• Aged a year, and I’m okay with that. This year in particular, getting older feels like the best possible outcome.

Thanks for being with me as best we could for this very weird trip around the sun, my dears. I hope to hug you again before we’re another year older.