It’s crazy to think that just 5 years ago, I was a sophomore in college trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Fast forward to now, and I would’ve never guessed I’d be married with two dogs by now. I also never thought I’d have my own small business and publishing a weekly blog. While I’m still figuring things out, I can say I understand more of what I want in my world and life.

Birthdays are a joyous occasion and typically include lots of fanfare. Some people dread turning older while others fully embrace their additional wisdom. Before my 26th birthday, I’d like to share 25 things that I’ve learned throughout my short lifetime.

Jury duty is both a legal and patriotic requirement that some people go their entire lives avoiding while others get chosen to decide the fate of a case by analyzing the facts and evidence presented. Stereotypically, jury duty is seen as a drag and a requirement that everyone would like to be excused from. Interestingly enough, I didn’t quite understand why until I got summoned to report for duty this past Monday.

Time is an interesting concept. It’s one that’s both here and gone in a second. It’s also one of the hardest resources to acquire since it’s always in motion. Time is of the essence in life threatening situations but somehow manages to stand still in certain situations. We must carefully find the balance of time that works best for our individual lifestyles and families.

No matter what I do, I never want to make a decision that’s not in line with the plan Jesus has for my life. I know that whatever is written in my life story is designed to teach me lessons, provide me with life skills, and sometimes even test my faith just to strengthen it. With that in mind, when I’m thinking over a major life decision, it calms my nerves to just give all my trepidation, worry, and anxiety about the situation over to God.

Popular society and social media will show that plenty of people prefer the 30 inch bust down middle parts and the extra, extra long nails with super elaborate and bold designs. However, with so much expression, we have to take special care that we aren’t allowing these optional additions to define who we are. While we can adorn ourselves with the best grade human hair and the latest and greatest nail product, we have to remember that those items don’t represent us in our natural form.

Social media is one of the most consistent forms of entertainment for the vast majority of us. We aimlessly scroll through timelines to keep up with friends, family, and even celebrities. It’s also how a good portion of people stay up to date on world events since headlines on IG posts can provide information quicker than traditional news outlets. Content creators and regular, degular people are going viral each day for funny, informative, or touching content that resonates with the masses.

I remember going through puberty and not struggling with acne. I never had those huge red boils on the sides of my cheeks and I never had the Crunch candy bar chin. Even during my later teenage years and into the early years of my 20’s, my skin was relatively clear most of the time. After I hit about 24, that’s when my skin really started giving me woes.

Over the years, my hair has gone through a whole bunch of transitions. From fully natural, to always being in braids, to having damaged, broken ends, to being completely chopped off, my hair has evolved with the various stages of life that I’ve gone through.

You can think of songs like tiny, personal time capsules that get released each time we press play. Every song that’s on repeat in your library is building a nostalgic feeling that you won’t experience until some years down the road.

Personally, there are few things that I despise more than the HOA in my neighborhood. For those of you lucky to not know, most homes built in subdivisions today have a Homeowners Association that you can’t opt out of. My biggest gripe is that the HOA isn’t run by the actual homeowners, but instead run by an outsourced community management company that’s usually far removed from the neighborhood itself.

I have never in my life slept through an alarm, thankfully. Usually, I’m a pretty light sleeper and the slightest sounds can wake me up. That works in my favor if I accidentally doze off after turning an alarm off, but works against me if there’s ever a bump in the night. I have to be exhausted to fall asleep with lots of noise around me.

Even though our wedding was a beautiful day and ceremony, I can’t say I would love to plan another wedding. While I refused to allow the moment to stress me out, it was a lot getting family and friends together in Athens as we celebrated our nuptials. I understand why getting married is a once in a lifetime event. From dress shopping to cake tasting to deciding the tuxes for the groomsmen to picking flowers and everything in between, it’s definitely a marathon and not a sprint.

At the end of the day, my blog is a passion project. If one day in the future it’s able to get monetized and be a passive money maker, cool, but that’s not why I consistently write these posts. I write because I genuinely enjoy getting the words out of my head in a creatively engineered sentence, paragraph, passage.

For someone who was determined to go out of state for college, I’m a huge UGA fan. It was the only university I applied to in Georgia, and not once have I regretted that decision. Fun fact, I applied early action to UGA but since I actually misspelled my name, I had to wait on pins and needles until the regular decisions went out. My initial mark on UGA will always be Jesssica.

Talk about embarrassing lol.

There’s one tea that I got from Trader Joe’s that has stuck with me for many years. I deeply enjoyed it, but only purchased one box. It was a reddish purplish color and smelled of flowers but had a sweet, light, airy taste. It was a pomegranate white tea with hibiscus flowers and lemongrass but I don’t think it had any caffeine. To date, that was my favorite tea that I’ve ever tried. I could drink it any time of the day and not get tired of it.

Out of all the doctors and health professionals I have to see annually, I dread seeing the dentist the most. Maybe because I have to see them more often than I have to see my primary care doctor or eye doctor. I prepare a whole month in advance by flossing almost every single day to avoid the typical “Your gums are bleeding. You might want to floss more often” lecture that I used to get pretty often.

While some internal timelines are beneficial, some definitely cause more damage than good. For example, an internal timeline can let us know when it’s time to work out again or when it’s time to push ourselves to get a little bit better each day. An internal timeline can become detrimental if we’re using that timeline to compare to other people’s highlight reel. We’re all human so we all wonder if other people are going through the same things at the same pace as we are. More often, the answer just isn’t that simple.

I saw this quote recently that had an impact on me. Someone said “Post your content. It doesn’t matter who is watching or how nervous you feel. It’s valuable.” So often, I get in my head over how other people will view the things I post, including this entire blog. For the longest, I didn’t post anything on my Instagram story because it didn’t seem that anyone cared for the content I created. Truthfully, it still doesn’t seem like many people care, but I’m pushing myself to not let that be a deterrent for me.

My options for the replacement car came down to a Lexus RX 350 and a Honda CR-V. I was initially drawn to the CR-V, but when I thought about what I wanted most in a car, the RX 350 fit the bill better at my budget. The first couple we went to see in person were a bust. The very first one wasn’t well maintained, didn’t have a backup camera, and needed more repairs than we were willing to take on. The second one ended up being over budget once taxes, tag, and title were taken into account and it had more miles than we necessarily liked. The third one was unconventional and maybe a little risky, but it ended up being the best option and the one I’m driving today.