Chapter 28: UNLOCKED

Dear Reader,

Life has taken the wildest turn since my most iconic birthday last year. The planets, and the fates, and all the stars ALIGNED!!!

27 has been a wild, joyful ride. As of today, it’s been exactly one year since I made my little 3 wishes. I wished for a VGK Stanley Cup, good health for Jake, for good things to come to me and for motivation to push me to strive for better every day. At the time, it was the summer before I started my graduate program, and now, my first year is done. My wishes came true.

1. VGK won the Stanley Cup the day after my birthday, making my birthday our first Stanley Cup-winning EVE!!!!!!!! I booked it back from Dubai so I could attend the parade! Man …. If you would have told me in 2021 that my birthday was going to never be the same….

Did I mention the Spanish VGK account asked me personally to be on their video prior to the final game last year? That was unforgettable.

I even got to watch VGK raise the banner on October 10, 2023!

2.     Jake is getting older, IVDD and Arthritis have reached him, and I’m thankful he has never been without health insurance. He’s getting monthly arthritis shots now, I give him red light therapy sessions, and many other supplements that make him feel like there’s nothing wrong with him.  I’m so proud of him and how much he has cooperated with me this past year.

3.     I wished for good things to come to me and for motivation to push me to strive for better every day. This is the one that makes me shake because it does not in any way feel real.

-       During my first week of grad school, I was at the school gym when I saw a poster that my school was doing tryouts for hockey. I didn’t even know we had a hockey team, so I got off the treadmill, headed straight to my school’s newspaper, and asked to join. So I started writing hockey articles for my school’s newspaper.

-       A week after that, through my news reporting professor, I got into the Telemundo Academy, and for the entire year, I got to work with some of the best people in the industry who believe in me and my future success.

-       I’ve covered tournaments such as The Big West Championship. I also had the opportunity to cover the MLS Western Conference Final and other LAFC games!!!!!

-       I received some of the worst feedback that I deserved from professors, but later that feedback led me to be told by my professor that that same paper, the final better version, was publishing worthy! That’s right, my literature review is publishing worthy on one of those scholarly websites! The way that I knew it was my proudest work and that it deserved to be published, to literally half a day later being told by my professor that it was publishing worthy is INSANE.

-       Later on, I won a scholarship for the hockey articles I wrote for my school!!!!! Like, excuse me what? Hockey is about to pay for my graduate program? You mean to tell me, HOCKEY is putting me through grad school? I’m going to need someone to dumb this down for me, because it still feels SURREAL. 2022 me just KNEW didn’t she? To quote my June 12, 2023 entry, “I’ve already paved the way, I just have to go through with it” and that’s exactly what happened.

At 27, I jet-skied the Persian Gulf, Lago de Coatepeque, got Out of The Woods, fast-forwarded to 300 takeout coffees later, worked hard, and never looked back. This is all 2018 & 2021 me wanted for me.

My lifelong dream of my baby sister having better opportunities than me came true, she graduated high school with a 4.8GPA, highest of her class, valedictorian! She got accepted to every single school she applied to, even got into her dream school USC on a full ride with dorming included!!!! This is all I prayed for.

This year I’ve learned those who care about me will not stand in the way of what I love the most, even if that only means talking about hockey. Now that I know better, I have so much love to give, and people’s projected visions of me are not mine to overcome. I’m too busy for that anyway (of course I couldn’t pass up a moment to mention how busy I am, duh! Who did y’all think I was?!).

I’m thankful to have the wonderful friends that I have. I’m thankful that my bestfriend that came back on my birthday last year is back in my life, we hold on to each other tight from Los Angeles to Jordan, and even when we haven’t spoken in days, I think of her daily.

I’m thankful to have my friends that listen to me when in need, the ones who let me hear their problems, it takes a lot to trust someone these days and I completely understand that.

Lastly, I’m thankful to every single one you for wishing me a happy birthday today, every single one of you have made my birthday memorable. This year I had to give up my yearly birthday trip, because I have a few opportunities coming up, not only that but the budget of a grad student isn’t big, but I would have never EVER guessed that it would be my friends who made sure I took a birthday trip regardless. My heart has never been this full, no Dubai trip could ever compare how you all came through for me to make sure I am happy today. Yes, I’m currently happy tear crying with my ugly crying face!!

By this time next year, I’ll have a graduate degree and my life will look different. Not sure how, but different. So this year, I wish for strength to push through whatever may come next. 

So, I leave you guys with this: trust time, patience is key, AND HAPPY 28TH BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!

P.S.: The Manuscript is coming.

P.P.S.: Next year, I just want to sit in a comfortable chair, and watch television and go to bed at a reasonable hour! (RIP Matthew Perry, I will always love you)