Grace turns 24 today, which is astonishing and profoundly mind blowing. Something that I didn't understand before having children is how much we would want for them. I want for all my children's hopes and dreams to come true. I want them to find amazing and affirming life partners. I want them to have a fulfilling and dreamy career! All that to say, while I love having her at home, she's a true joy, I'm finding it sometimes difficult to sit tight and let her do her thing when she's ready, financially, to find her own place. I want her to be living on her own, going out with friends, and being independent but for now, she can't (humanities salary vs NYC!) and I"m proud of her for not pushing too much or making rash and costly decisions on that move. I know it's coming but for now I'm trying to just enjoy having her home.
In front of the "magic wall" at G&G.
1. She is now a full time working woman at an independent publisher. While she doesn't love her job she knows it's a great stepping stone for what will come later. It's the 4 hour and 15 minute round trip commute that is the killer.
2. She is continuing to do freelance work for the magazine Garden and Gun. She really enjoys this work, it's interesting and varied, so is very thankful they keep asking her to do more.
3. She also has a particularly good eye for style and layout of things. Her Pinterest boards are like works of art! I genuinely think she could have a career in styling for magazines, etc.
4. She's complicated, in a good way. Grace is smart and interested and has a lot of different layers to her which I think makes her so interesting. She's emotional and sensitive. I'm aware that this is often flung around as a "bad" thing but I think it's actually a superpower of Graces.
5. But also? While she may be sensitive she is almost never overly dramatic. She doesn't, and hasn't ever, really gotten involved in girl (or otherwise) drama. While there have been times where I've feared she doesn't stick up for herself, I think she's mostly just good at determining what is important to her and what's not worth making a fuss about.
5. She's such a type A, first born girl. She has lists for everything you can imagine, she overthinks almost everything, and is usually crazy organized.
6. I sometimes worry that she's too afraid to make mistakes or too afraid of what others will think. Personally, I think this is a major problem with social media (of which she consumes a lot). So often it's only the perfection that is posted and seen. However, she's a perfectionist in the same way that Bryce is, and social media wasn't around for most of his life so perhaps it's just in the genes!
7. She loves oysters, reads voraciously, is pajama obsessed, actually has thoughts on what makes a good pencil, and could probably not live without her beloved Blundstones and Barbour Jacket (both of which she declares she was wearing well before they became "popular"). West Wing is her favorite show of all time, but also she loves Castle, probably because she watched so many while spending time with her Grandma. She is working on bagging all the peaks in the Catskills, loves to ski and wants to someday live for a period of time in the Pacific Northwest.
8. It's fun to watch as she develops very niche interests. Of late, she has really been into food/drink and the chefs that are creating them. She loves to try to "chef up" things that are super complicated, unique or simply beautiful.
10. She loves and adores her cat. She has more cat pics on her phone, by far, than anything else.
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