29th Birthday Dinner.
On December 28th, I turned 29, and I wrote a pretty lengthy blog post that IG refused to post. Bummer 🤷🏽♀️. But wait a minute, it could be my first ever blog post on museologie!! So it is. The IG post was a recap and quick reflection of my 28th year. I share quite a bit on social media (usually health related, me cooking or goofing around) and at the same time, I don’t much share much as it pertains to my private life. A big part of this happy + healthy (museologie) journey has happened in my private life & I’d like to share some of what that looked/looks like.
2018/28 was a good year, but at the same time, there were lots of changes.
My guy proposed in Marseille and now I’m a fiancé. We have a fun & interesting 10+ year journey that maybe one day I’ll share. Right now, we’re planning our wedding, but most importantly, our marriage.
Speaking of Marseille , I did hella traveling. It was a goal of mines and I, for sure, crushed it. I traveled to several cities in the South of France, went to Barcelona, Paris, Iceland and Jamaica. Iceland and Barcelona were the highlights and my favs- I’d go back in a second and of course I’d go to any francophone country parce que je parle français…vraiment, j’apprends tous les jours.
I started attending Epiphany Fellowship after “church dating” for a while and I truly like the community there. Although I haven’t joined, it’s my home church now. I hope to join this year.
Speaking of church, my relationship with God has gotten better/deeper. I have been working on improving that. I make time to go to the gym, watch all my comic shows (shout-out to the CW, Hulu & Netflix) and do all my extracurriculars , but I couldn’t find time to do my daily devotional. Something was wrong with my priorities, so I had to reshuffle and reset. In Touch, Rick Warren and the Bible App are my go to’s for devotionals. I also read Spiritual Discipleship with the women’s ministry and I definitely recommend it for a group. Long story short, I’m happy with where I’m at and looking forward to progressing. As my friends & I continue to grow in Christ, it’s been rewarding to fellowship with them..usually through text, but hey, it works!
BOC (Brothers of Climbing) now has two ambassadors in Philly, so in December, I started climbing again. For my birthday, my mother bought me climbing shoes and I cannot wait to be more active in the Philly climbing community. Yall, come join me!
In November, I started therapy again. I went in grad school and this year has been…. a lot and I started having a feeling I didn’t like towards the end of summer. I couldn’t shake that feeling for months and, in the spirit of putting myself first no matter what, I started. Now that I’m a few months in- many tears have been shed, I’ve had several epiphanies, numerous discussions about what’s going on + why and it was, by far, the best decision I could have made for myself in 2018. Highly recommend therapy to all persons out there in the world.
In 2017 I read the book: Boundaries In Dating. The main take away for me was that I needed to set boundaries in my everyday life- so I did. And last year I started speaking up when people overstepped. Now I’m not conflict avoidant, but I am not sure of anyone who wants to speak to their friends, partner, supervisors or family when they’ve done something that you feel is out of line. I’ve had to do that more than once and I’m appreciative to myself for setting & keeping boundaries. Listen, I gotta stand for my values-that’s most important.
I dabbled with museologie: started, then fizzled. I had a few group fitness classes this summer, collected contact info for the newsletter… started a bunch of things, but never fully completed anything. This year, I’m ready and museologie will be launched.
My Little and I have now been matched for almost 3 years!!
I became president of the Black Bigs Affinity Group for Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region and a board member for Young Involved Philadelphia. Both happened in Sept. I’m excited about these respective roles for different reasons. The Affinity Group focuses on recruiting Black folks to serve as Bigs and supporting current Black Bigs. For YIP, I feel (and was very honest during the interview and application process) that YIP doesn’t represent Philadelphians who have lived here their entire lives AND it definitely doesn’t represent the city’s diverse residents, especially Black and Brown folks who are active in Philly. And that’s not cool, so what’s up? Put me on the board let’s change it. Now I’m here. #hi.
Lastly, my girl friends...I have so many all over and I hold each one close. They inspire, uplift and encourage me. They are everything. A blog post will be dedicated to them in the future. But for now, 143. ‘Tis all. ❣️
More to come.
My only wish is that you strive to be happy & healthy as often as you can. I’m out. -JM
