Newsletter #57: 29 December (BYE 2024)

soft serving from the void

Hi,

I find the last week of the year is always a blur, a blip in the space-time continuum where each day lasts both years and seconds. We are approaching New Year’s Eve, though. It is my favorite holiday because it shoves the depressingly endless march of time right in your face but then says You’re allowed to dress up and drink champagne about it. I know I’m doing the last week of the year right because I am dyiiiiiing to get started on my clean fresh green resolutions.

5 Not-Headlines

1. Experts are urging us to rethink our new year’s resolutions, arguing our impulse to treat *personal* happiness as a *personal* pursuit is misguided, and we should consider taking care of relationships with our loved ones when we make our goals for the year ahead. After all, strong & healthy relationships with those around us is crucial to our wellbeing.

2. If you are thinking of Dry January-ing, but are not looking forward to the FOMO you’ll feel when you’re out to dinner with friends, be consoled by the lack of early morning hangxiety, lower blood pressure, and even diminished liver inflammation.

3. Cat eye and chrome nails are the anticipated nail trends of 2025. I like sparkles so I like the idea of this.

4. Speaking of beauty trends: Targaryen blonde as well as basically every variation of red hair will be in in 2025.

5. If you are one of the people behind the 120% surge in searches about how to detoxify following an indulgent holiday-season stretch, this article has some ideas for you.

My 2024 Review

I went dog sledding, I started climbing. I went on the first vacation I’ve ever paid for by myself, to Hawaii, where I both reunited with my best friend after three years and discovered I cannot drive a Jeep. I started submitting my writing this year and got rejected more times than I got accepted. Visited Stockholm and fell in love with it, I saw the New York Rangers and the Eras Tour and Enemy of the People and The Cherry Orchard and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I spent a weekend with my friends in Boston where I pretended to be back in college by going to my final DG formal. My little sister graduated middle school. I celebrated my bday with a steak tartare and a night at the bathhouse !! After moving upstate, I worked the most wonderful job with amazing people, I saw rainbows and swam in the lake, I ran a 10k and came in second place. I made butter and spread it on homemade bread. I woke up at 3am and had freakouts. I decided to move to Paris. On the way there I saw the northern lights. When I first got here I cried a lot, even though I am happy to be here. I also spent some time feeling embarrassed about speaking french, but then evolved beyond that shame.

I’d designate that as my big lesson of the year: Accepting that the fear of doing nothing has to exceed the fear of doing it badly in order for progress to begin.

That’s my 2024. A lot of happy, some sad, mostly exciting. Predictably, I couldn’t pick one song for this final letter of the year so I put one for each month of the year into a playlist. I loved soft serving you (almost 😅) all year long and I promise/can’t wait to be CONSISTENTLY yours in 2025.

Last XO of 2024,

NKG

And now, the last word: BEGINNING 💡