27 Things I’m Proud Of At 27

Happy Wednesday!

Tomorrow, December 12 is my birthday!!

And, might I add, it is sandwiched between two of my favorite icons, Hailee Steinfeld (December 11) and Taylor Swift (December 13). I mean, as Shakespeare said “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them” or in my case, some are born in between greatness.

In honor of turning 27 tomorrow, I wanted to share 27 things I’m proud of. Do you know how hard it is to find 27 whole things to be proud of?! To be honest, some days I struggle finding one thing I’m proud of in myself. But, this year I told myself I would be nicer to myself and be my own biggest fan and in an effort to do that and start 27 on the right foot, I wanted to share 27 things I’m proud of. Big or small, important or not important, just 27 things!

Outfit Details

Dress: Madewell. Shoes: Sam Edelman. Bag: The Daily Edited. Sunnies: Gentle Monster.

In no particular order… because who has time to rank this, ya know?!

At 27, I’m proud of:

1. I’m proud of having the means to take care of my mom & my family. She has always put me first in life and I’m happy to now be able to take care of her and put her first.
2. I’m proud of being able to take my mom on vacation. When I was younger, she wanted to make sure I had all the things and experiences other kids did, so she would save and take me to Disney World and to Virginia to visit my aunts. When I started high school and money got tighter, we weren’t able to really take vacations so I’m happy that now I can spoil her and take her on vacation.
3. A bit of a touchy subject for me if you’ve followed my blog for a while, but I’m proud that I fulfilled my dream of working for a magazine especially my dream magazine.
4. And on another note, I’m proud that I had the courage to pivot my career. My background is in magazines & marketing & photo shoots and this year I made the change to merchandising, a different field in the fashion industry. And although I always feel like I’m behind and sometimes feel sad that I had to start over, I’m proud I had the courage to take the plunge and switch paths.
5. I’m proud of having my own health insurance and contributing a good portion of my salary to my 401K. Yes, I am in fact a full grown adult.
6. I’m proud of always trying to push myself out of my comfort zone. As someone who is shy and introverted, I struggle with the smallest of things like going somewhere new alone for the first time or overall just feeling awkward. And while I’m not always great, I do make an effort to push myself out of my comfort zone and just do things.
7. I’m proud of being able to own up to my mistakes. I’m not perfect and fully aware of that. I’ve had friends in the past who never owned up to anything and I found myself always apologizing and feeling like the underdog when I know I wasn’t the only one in the wrong. I’m proud that I can own up to my mistakes, say sorry when the situation warrants and make an effort to understand someone else’s perspective.
8. I’m proud of learning from my past and growing from that. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and yes I dissect it to the point of obsession because of my anxiety, but I always try to learn something from it and try to grow from it. What I have especially learned is to not judge others, we all have our own story and journey and choices and we need to learn from it ourselves not face judgement from others because of their different opinions and path. Every experience is a learning experience in my opinion.
9. I’m proud that I always strive to keep moving forward. I try to live by my favorite Walt Disney quote. “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors, doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
10. I’m proud that I finally feel comfortable to embrace and share what I love and not being scared people will think I’m weird or childish or uncool. Listen, I love Disney and Harry Potter and yes I will be one of those “weird childless millennials at Disney World” and I just don’t care.
11. I’m proud of the people currently in my life. I have some really amazing friends and relationships that make me so happy.
12. I’m proud that I can stand up for myself and what I believe in. I’m headstrong and can sometimes be stubborn. I know my mouth can get me in trouble, but I’m proud of myself for speaking up and standing up for myself when I need to.
13. I’m proud of being able to open up and be vulnerable with people even after being hurt in the past.
14. I’m proud of being able to be self aware and be honest with myself. If you’re gonna be honest with anyone, it should be yourself!
15. I’m proud of being a hard worker. I’m gonna go ahead and toot my own horn here, but I know I’m a hard worker and I take my job seriously and give it 100%.
16. I’m proud of trying to not let my anxiety get the best of me. Sometimes I fail and that’s okay, but I do make an effort to take some deep breaths and keep telling myself that everything is going to be okay.
17. I’m proud of being a good friend. Sure, I can definitely work on my text back skills but I think I’m a pretty good friend. I always try to listen to my friends, be honest, non judgmental and be supportive.
18. I’m proud of my cultures and finally being proud to embrace them. I love being Vietnamese and I love being Puerto Rican.
19. I’m proud that I still wear my retainer every night lol. Mom paid a lot for braces so gotta keep the teeth straight!
20. I’m proud that I never quit blogging. I’ve had my moments where I struggled finding my purpose or feeling like I wasn’t good enough and that I was weird and different, but I’m happy and proud that I never quit because I love having my own space and being able to be my own boss here and have this as my creative outlet.
21. I’m proud of the content I create. It’s been a journey trying to find my voice and figuring out what I want to share, but I really am proud of the content I create and that I have a space where I can be vulnerable and share my stories.
22. I’m proud of putting others first. As an only child, there’s a stereotype that we are selfish and self centered, but I love taking care of people and being selfless.
23. I’m proud that I always strive to better myself and learn new things. Being in fashion merchandising, there’s a lot of math involved and while it’s not my speciality, I’ve been really making an effort to learn and better myself.
24. I’m proud that I’m a good gift giver. There’s honestly nothing I love more than giving a gift. If you really pay attention to what people say, they’ll tell you exactly what they want or love without meaning to and I love curating a thoughtful gift for someone I love.
25. I’m proud that I’ve been actively reading again! I make more of an effort these days to stop mindlessly scrolling through social media and instead sit down with a good book.
26. I’m proud that I try to support my fellow bloggers/friends. Anytime I scroll through instagram or someone’s blog and see something that resonates with me, I try to reach out and share my positive thoughts and encouragement with that person. I know it meant a lot to me when I published my “Why I Quit My Dream Job” post and people reached out to me and I want to share that encouragement and support with others.
27. I’m proud of who I am. I have my days and I think there is always room to learn and grow, but I’ve learned a lot about myself over these past few years and I’m proud of the person I am.

That.Was.Hard.

But, ya know what, I’m proud that I found 27 things to be proud of. Thank you so much for reading and stopping by and I will see you on Friday when I am no longer the naive age of 26 and instead grow into the much more mature ago of 27!