Natalie's Nook

Author’s Note: The response you’ve been waiting for…

✰♫♪•*¨·٠•●♥✿✿●♥٠·¨*•♪♫✰✰♫♪•*¨·

Hello love.

So, you made it to 25. Technically you’re a year older today.

☆⋆:∞.o(≧▽≦) Happy Birthday! (≧▽≦)o.∞:⋆☆

But giiiiiiiirrrrrl, you would not believe half the things you went through these past five years.

For starters, yes you are a college graduate, but unfortunately you were robbed of your graduation ceremony due to a freaking global pandemic that had damn near the whole world on lockdown ╥﹏╥. The lockdown lasted for maybe a year before society went back to “normal”— sort of. Yes, you cried about it, and also the fact that you didn’t get pictures with your college cap and gown, but you got your degree girlie, and that’s all that matters (▰˘◡˘▰).

Unfortunately, you haven’t written another book yourself, but you did contribute to a women’s self help book mom wrote titled “Maintenance Me”, which was published a month before you published “The Diary She Never Wrote.” Now, you do have a few ideas, especially a part two to “The Diary She Never Wrote”; but you’ve put the book writing on pause for now. In 2020 you were a writer for a blog called The DC Voice. You contributed journal articles about topics DC and Pop Culture related. That lasted for a good year until you started to build your career rather than your brand.

You still reside in D.C. and decided to give that teaching career a try. After graduation, you were fortunate enough to get a job where you worked from home as a K-3rd literacy tutor with the Literacy Lab. It was very interesting to teach students how to read through a computer screen. 2020-2021 was interesting in general (.-.). And yes, you still have slight ptsd from Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Anyway, you were a literacy tutor for about two years, but you wanted more in classroom experience without having the major responsibilities of a teacher. You became an educational aide. And being in the field of education for the past four years have been…fascinating. That’s a topic for a different day.

Did I mention that you finally gained the confidence to apply to graduate school? Well, you applied, and you will be going to UDC this fall (2024) to get your license and master’s degree (MA) in Early Childhood Education (ﾉ≧ڡ≦) Teehee~! You’re excited but at the same time really freaking nervous to be a student again. Not going to lie though, you’re most definitely looking forward to graduation, Class of 2025 sounds too good. It would give you the ceremony that was taken from you four years ago.

As far as that special someone, let’s just say…that’s still pending ಠ_ಥ. You have had successes and failures while dating, but it just hasn’t been how you pictured it to be. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, girly, your idea of love being a fantasy…being a fairytale hasn’t come to fruition. It has been difficult facing the “reality” of love when all of your ideas came from the YA films and novels you consumed. Now, just because those things were fiction doesn’t mean you may never experience a romance like that. But I am sorry｡ﾟ(இ ‸ இ✿)ﾟ｡. I know how much you love love, and I never want us to settle, the time will come…I’m sure of it.

You don’t have any new piercings, and you don’t have a fear of needles per se; you’re simply being picky with what you want permanently inked on you and about the artist, have to make sure they know how to tattoo on dark skin. You would probably be shocked to find out that you cut our curls off June 1st 2022. On that day you were longing for the feel of something new. I know I know, you worked very hard to grow your hair out to the length and fullness it was; but you just decided it was time to start over.

You did dye your hair some cool colors like ginger and cajun spice, while also dying your hair one of your favorite colors…pink! As a matter of fact, you dyed your hair pink for your 25th Birthday. Cutting your hair was one of the best decisions you ever made. Having your hair cut short has shortened your hair wash/style routine, it has made oiling and hydrating your scalp easier, and it has made getting your hair done less expensive….sorta.

I’m happy to tell you that some of what you wrote about is true. And I’m glad that it has. I’m working on the being happy part. I’ve had my moments where I’ve felt my happiest self, but I’ve also had my moments where I felt like I’ve let you down. Yes, I’m working on no longer beating myself up about it, and I have to remember that I can’t do everything over night; but I can’t help but think I should be doing more…you should have accomplished more by now (｡ﹷ ‸ ﹷ ✿). But enough about the past, I will say that I am looking forward to fulfilling more of those things these next five years. Wait, I’m too scared to think about 30-year-old me right now, let me stay in the present.

I reassure you that I am very much still grounded and motivated, I am still my own individual, and that’s what matters most. 

I am so glad you wrote to me and that I was able to give you a response.

Here’s to five more years!

Yours Truly,

25…wait nope 26-year-old you.

P.S. You still haven’t learned French, but recently you’ve picked up Japanese on Duolingo. Good luck!

+｡:.ﾟTHANKヽ(*´∀)ﾉﾟYOU.:｡+ﾟ for reading!

Mwah (ꈍᴗꈍ)ε｀*)