The first month observed

January 2026 notes, film and questions... & jaywalking meanderings

Hello fellow learn-it-all 👋

Greetings from New York City!

Within the first half hour of walking the streets of Manhattan to a sweet green salad spot, I summed up my impressions of the city as a bunch of banks and deli spots. My New Yorker friend Emily agreed as we were jaywalking. It’s wild.

Now, before the goods I allude to in the title, a short segway about jaywalking and crossing the street when you’re not supposed to.

In the past year, I’ve lived in places all across the spectrum, from being without sidewalks to places with lights for bikers. In Thailand last spring, I always felt a bit unsafe without a sidewalk, but I liked walking most of the time to get some steps in and avoid adding to the air pollution from my motorbike. My Thai teacher friends thought I was always crazy for walking. Then, in the Netherlands over the summer, if I jaywalk, I feel judged. But then here in Manhattan, if I don’t jaywalk, people shove past me to jaywalk themselves and judge me for waiting for a walk signal.

What the heck!

This one small nuance says so much about a place and its people. Culture is fascinating in this way. In 2021, on my second day of working in honolulu, cop hiding out at teh corner of the Gucci store pounced on me with a double infraction for jaywalking to instate a new law. I stopped jaywalking ever since. But now? Now, I feel the peer pressure, and in true hustle fashion, I jaywalk like the other new yorkers.

Does any of this matter? Not really. But it’s interesting to notice these nuances and wonder how they came to be. Why do some people follow rules while others don’t? Maybe it’s because everyone here has so many fun events to go to, like the college workshop I went to last night, or because they’re entrepreneurs, which inherently requires drawing far outside the lines.

Rushing adds a sense of urgency to your life. It creates a sense of importance. To always have your heart rate a bit higher than it really needs to just to feel more alive…

Okay enough of my musings on jaywalking…

I’m doing a recap a couple days prematurely this month, but the energy was there, so I followed it and here we goooo! Let’s dive into letter 299 from a learn-it-all. Enjoy!

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❓Question to think about

What the heck happened in this first month of 2026?

🖊️ Reflecting

January 2026 recap

with 22 random things I thought, did, noticed, etc…

1. Survived downhill skiing, even some black diamonds. Loved how a chairlift at Boyne Highlands added a seat warmer. Technology can be oh so brilliant.

   

2. went on a plane for the first time in two months to go to California and took cool shots of the desert at Joshua Tree National Park on my Canon Sure Shot WP-1 film camera (the souvenir I bought myself in Hanoi, Vietnam).

   

3. Booked a direct flight to NYC when I realized I was in a slump for too many days.

4. Decided I’ll co-lead a Foster writing circle with my friend Jasmine Pierik on Wednesdays @ at 12 pm EST. I facilitate on Zoom on Wed! Sign up here.

5. Tried cross-country skiing for the first time and felt enthusiastic about trying new things again

6. Did a fitness test to capture baseline for goals. I felt surprised I could do 68 squats in 3min and 23 sit ups in 1min. On the other side of the coin I felt ashamed I could only do 11 pushups, hold a plank for 1:07 and run a mile in 8:36.

7. Watched my dog snap a squirrel’s neck within an instant from her instincts. Shoveled him into a shoebox with my mom.

8. Went swimming for the first time in 3 months. Felt delightful.

9. Got uncomfortable in a wiggling workshop led by Ocean Kiani. Glad I went. :)

10. Did lots of yoga classes (~2x week) & started doing daily stretches again. Cat and cow poses and pidgeons on my back are GOAT. Grateful to own a yoga strap again.

11. hosted a 2026 Intention Letter Ritual on Zoom. Shoutout to Nathalie Cohen for making it such a delight. I love how we agreed we could do with more connection in 2026.

12. Lost my favorite glasses on a plane and was blind for a day in Salt Lake City

13. Took a selfie with a donkey at a petting zoo in California. I wanna watch Skrek again now.

    

14. Had an offline day that inspired my piece on friction maxxing

15. Made some turkey tacos for the fam. Bought the pineapple salsa that was way, wayyy too spicy for my Midwestern guests.

16. Saw a mystery thriller @ the MJR Cinema called “The Housemaid” on a Sunday night, where I clapped my hands to the theme song. My first time to a cinema in America in two years. I was scared and sweaty because of the genre but I was with my sister and cousins for emotional support. I walked out and my family relented about their Sunday scaries, meanwhile I shared about how I wish I had a job to motivate me the next morning. Perhaps the grass is actually greener where we water it.

    

17. my 100% ghost rate for housing outreach responses in Amsterdam went down to 99%.

18. Wrote 1000 words a day for 16 of the days. These are an extension of my morning pages. I’ve gone back to journaling analog on paper, allotting 1 page each morning and night, but it’s not enough, so then I open my computer and let it rip without trees in mind. When I type these, I don’t allow myself to use the delete button, and most days, toggle off the wifi to be without internet as a distraction.

19. Poured half a glass of water on my computer and it somehow miraculously survived. Grateful I went to church and God answered my prayer.

20. Had a call with my friend, who I haven’t spoken to in 5 years, who I found out is a sales coach. He challenged my limiting beliefs on sales that “good sales solve problems.” My new motto. So that guy on the road in the Thai night market, trying to sell me stuff I don’t want, is making problems rather than solving them. That’s not good sales.

21. Watched a boatload (9) of DVDs: Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Rudy, Gran Torino, Stripes, Princess Diaries 1 and 2, and Wind (an epic sailing movie).

22. taught my sister how to knit and completed two scarves and my first ever hat! I feel like a blueberry in it :)

    

Asking myself these 12 questions…

1. What worthy cause do I want to spend myself in? (inspo to Man in the Arena by Teddy Roosevelt)

2. What is the difference between vanity & self-love (inspo to the Devil’s Advocate movie)

3. What are my intentions for this year?

4. How can I create a shared understanding?

5. Who could I connect with that has a key to unlock many doors in my life?

6. What is clear in my life? What do I know?

7. What details of my days from 2025 stick with me the most? Big moments in ten days?

8. How can I seek out more serendipity?

9. How can I make the most of the time I get gifted in this lifetime? (inspo when Gandalf tells Frodo in the cave)

10. What does my dream life look like on June 1 2026?

11. How can I make the decisions I’m making right now right for me? (inspo to Oliver Burkeman and Rich Roll pod about how there is no right decision)

12. How can I make the grass greener where I already am?

Past Letters

And in case you’re new here or decided to declare email bankruptcy, deleting everything, here’s what else I shared in January:

Go on a Curiosity Walk

What's In? What's Out in 2026?

On what it means to be interesting

On how friction is fun

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📜🖋 Poetry Corner

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost via Poetry Foundation

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

🎧Listening

My potion (demo) by Kuomo

Found via molly’s 2025 notes

🔍Word to define

Lucid

1. Shining; bright; resplendent; as, the lucid orbs of heaven.

2. Clear; transparent.

3. Presenting a clear view; easily understood; clear.

4. Bright with the radiance of intellect; not darkened or confused by delirium or madness; marked by the regular operations of reason; as, a lucid interval.

Syn. -- Luminous; bright; clear; transparent; sane; reasonable.

(according to Webster’s 1913)

Context: at a collage workshop I was taking in Greenpoint Brooklyn last night, we had a visualization about what we wanted to lean into. I started rampantly journaling after and wrote that in 2026, I wanted lightness and lucudity, but I didn’t even know what that meant!

🌟Quote to inspire

“It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.” —Isocrates

And in case you don’t know, just like I didn’t…. who’s Isocrates? He was a preeminent ancient Athenian orator, rhetorician, and teacher who established one of the first influential schools of rhetoric in Athens around 390 BCE.

📸Photos of the Week

Me on the Highline, the first time I stayed here in June 2019 vs me today in 2 degree weather in my eskimo outfit. Love a good flashback.

🙏Shoutouts

• to Emily for letting me sleep on her couch in Manhattan and the inspiration for adding her fave poem :)

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I am grateful you chose to fill part of your day here.

If something in this letter resonated, press the ❤️ , leave a comment, reply to this email, or reach me at vermetJL@gmail.com. I love hearing from you.

Keep on learning 😁

Tot snel 🌺 🌺

Toodles :)

Jen

P.S. #1 - I wrote a book. Letters to My Life is my favorite way to share my writing with you (and it keeps your screen-time stats down). Grab your copy here.

P.S. #2 - Here’s what you missed. Last week I wrote about how friction can be fun