26 things: half year (and a bit) update.

For my birthday this year, I made a list of 26 things that I wanted to accomplish in my 26th year, and now that I'm half (okay, just over half) of the way through the year, I wanted to catch-up with how I'm doing and figure out what I still need to accomplish before I turn 26 next March.

11 out of the 26 items have been crossed off so far, seven things are in progress, and eight things are completely unfinished. On the list of completed items, I've traveled to a new place (Portland, ME), gone to four concerts (Ed Sheeran, again), I moved out, got a new job, and went back to California (twice!).

Of the seven things in progress, I've mostly kept up with the month-by-month ones — writing a handwritten letter/note every month, and buying myself flowers — though, I've forgotten most months about the polaroid photos. I've been cooking for myself a lot, and trying to come up with a bunch of staple dishes to make all the time and get really good at (I set the goal at five staple dishes, though I can already make way more things, so it's kind of (?) completed).

Of the things that are unfinished, I either know I'll likely get around to it — like taking some sort of class, maybe calligraphy or copy editing — or unless I really dedicate some time, I probably won't — like brewing beer, or knitting something. The reality of the things that are unfinished is that since moving out and starting my new job (which requires me to write for 40 hours a week), hobbies — including this blog — have hit the back-burner kind of hard. I've tried and tried to keep up with project life, picking up new hobbies, and blogging, but the fact of the matter is, I'm loving life right now, and spending most of my free time with my roommates, seeing friends, going to events for work, and exploring my new town; so I'm not completely mad at myself for having so many things unfinished with my birthday just over four months away.

As with last year's birthday project — 25 things — I have adapted over the course of the year and reevaluated the things that I want to really do. And as with last year, I'm okay with that. I do want to get back to blogging more regularly, and have been saying it for the past six months, but it'll be a slow burn. So I'm not quite close to accomplishing all 26 things yet, but I do feel alright about it all, which is fine by me for now.