19/01/2026
It’s my 36th birthday today, another year around the sun 🌞🔮✨💝
And I’ve never written myself a birthday post but today I really feel called to sharing.
The photos in this post are some of the really happy moments from my 35th year. But the photos say one thing, and underneath is another. I never take any of it for granted. But there’s a huge appreciation for the saying ‘you never know what’s going on under the surface’.
Last year, my 35th year, was one of the hardest years to date.
I completely lost myself.
I lived in a skin that didn’t feel like mine. I moved through the world guarded, braced for impact. It was a year of loss—so many tears, screaming into pillows, my inner critic louder and crueler than ever. Never enough. Challenged at every turn. Every time I thought I’d found my footing, I veered off again, into the unknown, a bottomless pit of questions.
Everything I gave my whole heart to fell apart. I felt defeated, deflated. I ended the calendar year so sick I was hallucinating, breathing through a gas mask, unable to see how any of it would end. There was no clear way out. Only darkness.
And yet, sitting here now, in my home, shared with the love of my life, I am overwhelmed by a quiet, eternal gratitude for all of it.
I have learned who I am. What I want. How I choose to live. I am shedding not just tears, but expectations—layers of who I thought I should be. I am releasing versions of myself that no longer serve me. I am listening, finally, to what I want for me.
So, as a commitment to myself, I hereby grant myself permission:
to walk authentically,
to listen deeply,
to move freely,
to love more fully,
and to always show up exactly as I am.
Happy birthday to me. 🎂💝🫶🏼
