On the way back from the Paul McCartney show, my friend Melissa turned to me and asked, “You have a birthday coming up, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Twenty-eight.” I shrugged, not knowing what more to add.
“Oh, twenty-eight is the BEST year!” she declared. She went on to say that all her friends would agree: if they could go back and relive a year of their past? It would be twenty-eight. I thought about this as I downed my birthday cocktails last night. Yes, I should make twenty-eight a year anyone would want to relive with fervor.
Part Deux of the Open Letter to Myself: (You can read Part One HERE. Oh and my rambling “1.5″ here.)
16. Continue the art of honing down your “Homecoming Expectations.” You know, when you hold a person or event to ridiculous expectations (like Homecoming) and you’re devastated when they don’t live up to them (like when your boyfriend won’t even dance the last dance with you and subsequently breaks up with you after a Matchbox20 concert).
17. You have the best mom and dad ever. They gave you a ridiculously happy childhood and a great foundation off of which to launch and make a mark on the world. Make sure they know that you know that.
18. Heed this:

19. You can be trusted with a lot of things. Mature things. Adult things. A credit card is not one of those things.
20. Jesus Christ, Jenny. When you need help, JUST ASK FOR IT.
21. Never forget the weird dichotomic ability for He’s Just Not That Into You to simultaneously save and ruin your life. “Save,” because it’s genuinely a time-saver, and “Ruin,” because it makes crushes SO MUCH LESS FUN.
22. When someone arrives at a party, yell, “Heeey!” like you were waiting for them this whole time! People love that. Also, fine-tune your ability to read a party so that you leave riiight after it reaches its peak. Don’t linger, like that one time you tried to hang out with Ra Ra Riot in Bloomington and they turned you down, or that other time you stuck around the Anthony Bourdain meet ‘n greet until the waitstaff was packing up and they were turning off the lights.

23. Don’t forget what Anthony told you in regards to your writing:

24. You can’t pull off a romper. It’s okay, though! You can pull off a lot of other things! Oh, and when in doubt, BELT IT.
25. I hope you never lose your sense of wonder. Oh shit, that’s from a song. But seriously. Never lose your eagerness to learn, even when it means you possess an oddly vast knowledge of documentaries about fundamentalist religious groups.
26. You are in your lane. Other people are in their lanes. Stop being mean to yourself for not being in someone else’s lane. No matter how good that person’s lane looks on Facebook.
27. You’re young; you’re gonna make mistakes!
28. All of this? All of the turmoil and absurdity and hilarity and joy? It’s going to make a great book some day.

