Well, here we are! I am officially a quarter of a century old. As old as Adele when she came out with her album “25” (meaning she wrote “Hello”, “All I Ask” and “When We Were Young”, while I’m here writing this blog post), and as old as Cesare Cremonini when he wrote “Marmellata #25” – this is for my Italian friends, obviously.

Every birthday since I’ve had this blog, I have written a birthday post, outlining all of the “big things” I’ve done in the past year. You can find my 22nd Birthday post here, my 23rd here, and my 24th here. Now, this year has obviously been a little different (huge understatement). So obviously, I don’t have big accomplishments to announce or cool trips to show off. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have things I want to share. Small improvement is still an improvement, especially during times like this, when we truly feel STUCK most of the time. 

So here’s my little list of the things worth mentioning that went down during my time as a 24-year-old!

Started Studiare in America

This is number one on the list, because it is my pride and joy. Livia and I had been talking about creating Studiare in America for a very long time: a virtual space for Italian young adults who want to come to the United States to study. So, this past year, we finally created an Instagram page full of resources in Italian, as there’s a big lack of information in our native language regarding the process of coming to the United States as a student.

The page is small, but successful, and lots of prospective students have come our way to request information or clarification. We had a way bigger impact than we thought we could have. If you think about it, wasn’t it hard and confusing to navigate the college application process? Imagine doing that in a foreign language! Creating and sharing resources for determined young Italians, as well as sharing our personal experiences with them, has been SO rewarding.

I see tons of potential in this initiative, we now have a Facebook page too and an email to give out customized consultations to those who request it. I know that Studiare in America will grow even more in the near future and we are ready for it!

 

Lost my Job, Found a Job, Then Changed my Job 

And all of that happened pre-pandemic! I was unfortunately laid off from a job I loved at the end of last year. Actually, the job was alright, the people were what really made the job amazing. We had such an amazing group and I truly miss them all! Either way, the agency where I used to work sadly closed down, but shortly after, some of the partners there decided to start their own micro-agency and asked me to come along for the ride! I accepted that job because I wanted to continue working on my client; I thought it would be very abrupt to leave most of our projects unfinished.

However, after a few months, I realized that I was eager to grow as an account-person in a different setting: I wanted to work on a bigger client, move from B2B to consumer work (sorry for the advertising lingo!) and learn new things. So, after I completed a big project, I started job hunting and got an offer almost right away (I’m talking within a week!). I accepted the offer as an Account Executive at Geometry, a WPP agency, in March, and have been here ever since! Unfortunately I started this job from home, so I’ve never actually worked at their incredible office, but I can’t wait for things to get better so that I can do that and meet my coworkers in person!

 

Found David

I’m not one to share much of my love life publicly. I generally do not have love advice for you and overall, I am very reserved on the matter. But since I mentioned my breakup in my 24th birthday post last year, I thought I’d also mention meeting and dating David.

David is the first American man I have ever dated. He doesn’t really speak much Italian (but is improving a ton), he’s never been to the Motherland (he’s Italian American, so it’s his motherland too!), and he doesn’t know much about what my life and culture was like before I came here to the US and assimilated a bit. That kind of worried me at first, because it was new and scary. But nothing is scary about being with David. It’s just completely natural, even though we’re so different. So, I’m glad I kept an open mind.

If I may, I’ll give you love advice today. If you find someone with whom you dance on the balcony, watch Saturday morning cartoons, have lakefront picnics and drive-in movie nights, get ice cream, have your own two-people book club and sing Stevie Wonder at the top of your lungs driving back from New York City in a pickup truck during a thunderstorm, well… hold them tight and keep them around.

 

Lived with Livia

I’ve got to “thank the pandemic” for this one, because if it wasn’t for COVID, I would’ve never lived with my cousin/best friend Livia. Yes, we’ve almost always lived in the same time zone – a big deal in long distance friendships! – and have gone on trips together, but we had never actually lived together until she was pretty much kicked out of her dorm due to coronavirus. Well, living with Livia was probably the main thing that got me through quarantine. We were never bored. In fact, we did everything you can possibly think of, from cooking a whole lot to playing Animal Crossing, from the Chloe Ting two-week shred challenge to repainting my bed frame. We binged tons of Netflix series and had homemade Sunday brunch every week. I wouldn’t have traded it for the world!

 

Been cooking A LOT

Like I said, Livia and I cooked. Like a lot. That’s what you get for locking two Italian women in their apartment! During quarantine, I cooked some meals I never thought I would be able to make. We are talking lasagne from scratch, gnocchi alla sorrentina from scratch, ravioli from scratch, pizza and pizzette – you guessed it – from scratch! Plus the glorious leg of lamb for Easter. We truly rediscovered the pleasure of cooking for our family and sitting down around a homemade meal. You can head to my Instagram highlights to see some of our recipes! Find them in the Cooking 1, Cooking 2 and Cooking 3 highlights.

 

Taught my first few Aerial Stretching classes

This was so crazy to me because, even though I’ve practiced aerial arts for many years and even performed it, I had never taught classes for it. However, a local studio gave me the chance to do it, pre-pandemic obviously, and I had a blast doing it! I would love to continue teaching, although I haven’t practiced aerial much during the pandemic, so I will have to work on my skills and also my teaching skills! Fitness instructors, how do you do it?! Working out AND teaching at the same time is no joke!

 

Lived through a pandemic!

Okay, using this as a last “accomplishment” on my list to make a point: we all have lived, and are still living, through a pandemic! Pat yourselves on the back, because this is NOT easy. And it’s not supposed to be easy! We have completely shifted our lifestyle, our way of doing things, basically overnight. If you feel like you’re doing it wrong, there are probably millions of people around the US and the world sharing that same feeling. We are all still kind of winging it!

So, do what you have to do to make the best out of this experience. Take breaks when you work from home, practice some self care, do see some friends and family – safely – if you have that opportunity. We’ll get better as we go! And hopefully one day, not so far ahead from now, we’ll once again be able to travel around the world, dance at concerts, work next to our coworkers, go out and hug each other!

That is all I have for y’all today. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll jump right into my mid-twenties. 25 has been nothing but exciting so far!