🎉 From Biathlons to Bashes: Celebrating February's Finest

Embracing Growth, Gratitude, and New Beginnings (Letter 199)

Mar 01, 2024

Aloha fellow learn-it-all 👋

Greetings from Honolulu, Hawaii

It’s a great day to be alive! Yesterday, I woke up and ran a half marathon for the second time ever(!!).

The last time I ran this far was in November 2021, that I wrote about in Letter 85. This shows that with past challenges we’ve faced, we can overcome with more ease, and as humans, we’re resilient, and we can do hard things. Damn, it feels good to cut through the doubts and fears of things we’re afraid of and do it anyways. It’s fun to do for the hell of it and squash limiting beliefs.

Before we get into this week’s letter...

My previous employer's favorite part of working with me is “my curiosity and ability to converge creative ideas from the collective into something tangible.” I’m now on the market for a new role.

I’ve opened my calendar here if you’d like to connect on any opportunities.

So what’s next?

I’m not entirely sure! I’d love to lead creative projects full-time, where I can continue working with inspiring leadership bringing their ideas to life alongside a dynamic team in small to medium-sized companies in the education, technology, or mental health fields.

Here’s my resume.

Looking forward to diving in deeper and finding the right fit!

Now, let’s jump into letter 199 from a learn-it-all. Enjoy!

If you are new here or missed last week's edition, you can catch up on the past letters here. If you are reading this for the first time, I’d love you to sign up below to join the other learn-it-alls:

❓Question to think about

Who will I be at 28?

🖊️Writing

What’s been on my mind? Nothing too original other than that I am now 28 and trying to set a vision for the future.

Last week, I published 28 lessons from 28 and the prior week, a poem about birthday blooms.

Why not finish this birthday month with more thoughts on this age?!

In chronological order, some fun factoids on…

The women in my family:

At age 28, my mom bought a house, married my dad, and received the maximum amount for the suggestion award at General Motors. (1989)
At age 28, my Dutch grandma, Omi, lived in Michigan with a five-month-old. (1956)
At age 28, my Polish grandma, Basia, married my twenty-four-year-old Dziadzia. (1953)

Other inspiring women I look up to:

At age 28, Sara Blakely sold door-to-door fax machines before founding Spanx within the next few years. (2000)
At age 28, Barbara Oakley was aboard the Soviet trawler ‘Tigil,’ the Bering Sea, and would later write about it in Hair of the Dog: Tales from Aboard a Russian Trawler. (1983)
At age 28, Mary Oliver published her first collection of poetry. (1963)
At age 28, Sylvia Plath published her first poetry collection and was balancing roles as a mother and writer. (1960)
At age 28, Audrey Hepburn starred in "Funny Face" and became an international icon of film, fashion, and humanitarianism. (1957)
At age 28, Amelia Earhart began her aviation career on the side of being a social worker in Boston, and in two years, she’d become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as a passenger. (1926)
At age 28, Marie Curie was on the cusp of her groundbreaking research into radioactivity after moving from Poland to Paris to further her education. (1895)

🤔 Reflecting on February

💖 I loved

my daily habits this month. (1) I wrote things I love about myself in my journal. (2) and verbally expressed appreciation to friends in my life.

😯 I am surprised about

✂️ How refreshed I feel from cutting a foot of hair off my head (first time having hair this short in my life, more to come soon on this decision)

🥈 Receiving second place in the Valentine’s Biathlon

🌹 How many friends I have that are single and came to a singles gathering on Valentine’s Day. I guess it is a season of singledom ¯\(ツ)/¯

🗨️ How validating it is to remove the qualifier of “I think” and “I feel” from my speech

👗 How fun clothing swaps feel to give clothes away to friends and share the stories of how I wore them. Like giving away my first-ever pair of Chacos that I bought for Fiji 8 years ago

🎊 How many friends showed up to my birthday beach bash

🤩 I am excited about

🌬️ Running with my hair in the breeze without a ponytail

🚲 My road bike and tennis shoes to invest in my fitness and explore new places

🙅‍♀️ Saying no to a weekend whale-watching trip to have time alone and prioritize my life

🫁 Taking Jonny Miller’s Nervous System Mastery course in March

🪨 Creating rock-solid routines with my habit tracker. Current habits are zazen, movement, reading, outreach, creating, and job progress

🎧 Exploring new artists and doing deep dives into the lyrics in their albums

💃 Dancing in the grass to get in my body more often

📒 Taking and sharing notes with friends because I am a nerd

💫 I learned that

🤕 I will get a sore neck for days from riding at the waterpark

🏐 If I serve underhand with an open hand and a smaller swing with less variance, it’s a lot more dependable

🖼️ As much as I enjoy words, creating vision boards can be grounding to add images to the feelings and words, making them more memorable

🎞️ Developing film from my camera is effortful, making it even more fun. I want to find other pursuits that take effort and are more enjoyable because of that.

☑️ Old-school analog checklists on printer paper are not to be underrated. They leave me feeling just as satisfied as any high-tech tool

🎧 Listening

“Time Machine” by WILLOW

Baby if I had a time machine
I'd go back to 1993
Maybe I would play with Kurt Cobain
Maybe I would get on MTV
Maybe I would cruise all day
Ride a longboard, foosball fates
I don't care what anyone says
Everyone is disconnected these days
'Cause everyone is looking at their phone
Tryna feel like they are less alone (So wrong)
And I'm here to tell them
That they're wrong (So wrong)

🔍Word to define

Non-sequitur: a statement (such as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said

Etymology

Latin for “it does not follow”.

The phrase was borrowed into English in the 1500s by people who made a formal study of logic. For them, it meant a conclusion that does not follow from the statements that lead to it. But we now use non sequitur for any kind of statement that seems to come out of the blue.

🌟Quote to inspire

“You can probably take it as a rule of thumb from now on that if people don't think you're weird, you're living badly.” —Paul Graham

📸 Film shots for the Month

I started this month by sharing some film photography, and I will close it out with some as well. 😊

🙏Shoutouts

To friends who have helped me with my resume and job search so far, including Chat GPT4, Mitch, Aunt Lindy, Emily, Eric, Hannah, Dan, Chris, Marta, Hollie

I appreciate you reading this!

If ideas resonate, I’d love you to press the heart button, leave a comment, reply to this email, or reach me at vermetjl@gmail.com. If you forget who I am, I welcome you to my online home.

Keep on learning 😁

Mahalo 🌺

Jen

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