through the looking glass
2018 // a litany
early in the year I flew to London for work for the first time and basically got the sweetest, sweetest welcome from my friends on the other side of the pond. How lucky I am to partner with people that I love so much. And then I flew home for the first time in nearly two years, slept in my childhood bed with my feet dangling off the edges, stuffed myself with as many fish balls one could humanly eat in a single sitting, fell asleep to my parents’ snores feeling like I was five all over again. April in Vegas was a Zedd show at a nightclub, three days of talks, and too many late nights.
Summer was London again and then Colorado — in summary: late work nights bridging two timelines, too many gin&tonics; multiple hikes, sitting on boulders with the sun kissing my bare arms, walking barefoot in glacier runoff and freezing my toes off. July was 100% apartment moving-induced stress and nothing else. On a sticky summer evening in August I showed up for my birthday reservation and found out that I’d be sitting next to Aziz Ansari in a wine bar. September was spent eating my weight in seafood in Japan, spending time with family again — a rarity in these recent years given that all four of us span three countries and two continents. This was also the month I drunk straight gin in the basement of Le Poisson Rouge by complete accident one night — on an empty stomach nonetheless — and lived to tell the tale.
In October I bought a blonde wig for Halloween and nearly gave my mom an aneurysm. That was also the month I got a full week’s worth of music recs and slowly discovered my soft spot for moody rock/ r&b playlists on late nights. Now, onto November: most people spent thanksgiving weekend eating turkey and I spent it onstage doing my first public poetry reading; the lights were too bright and my voice definitely wavered through the first ten seconds of it but heck, here’s to one off the bucket list, finally.
2018 rounds off with one last trip to London - this time tagged with some crazy huge decisions to make - and then a personal vacation to France. France isn’t perfect but I love it anyway and am so, so, happy I got to go again. Paris seems very much the same - but I’m not who I was 4 years ago - and so in some ways this trip has felt very different, for reasons that I’m honestly glad for. here’s to 2018: a year where I gave my all, grew a little, reconnected with some old friends, and still held the hands of the ones I’ve always loved. what a long year.
