I was born on the 27th so it goes without saying that the number feels special to me. It’s within the Top 6 of my favorite numbers along with -7526.31, 0, 1, π, and 42, in no particular order. (27 is also 3^3 so that’s really cool.)
Anyway, enough useless trivia– today, I turned 27. And yes, I feel so old. But since the number is special to me, I wanted to make it quite memorable.
Frankly, I am quite ashamed of telling people my age– probably because I’m still a student and I feel like a total failure being stuck at this stage this late. I know I’m not alone in this, but it still sucks haha.
But today, I decided to let go of this shame, and announce it to all the readers of this blog (which is approximately equal to zero HAHA) (but hey, it still feels liberating in some way, yes.) After all, the first step to overcoming something is to acknowledge that that “something” exists (very profound, I know.) (Yes, I love parentheses.)
Anyway, the rest of this blog post will just be about my reflections on me reaching the age of 27.
Story Time! 13 Things to Do Before I’m 27
When I was 15, I wrote down a list of 13 things to do before I’m 27. It was a list containing, well, the milestones I wanted to achieve before I turn 27 lol. Unfortunately, my journal during that time is stored inside a box that I had to go to great lengths to recover so I can’t show the full finished picture here.
Fortunately I found another journal that I had where I have rewritten these goals:
Here’s the list in text format, and whether or not I achieved them:
1. ✅ Learn digital art at 15.
15 year old me was sneaky because I already know digital art by the time I wrote this goal lol.
2. ❓ Be good at playing the piano and guitar at 16.
This is hard to assess since the word good is vague. If I’m completely honest I wouldn’t say I’m good at either of these instruments, but I did manage to do some short piano and guitar covers.
3. ✅ Learn to sketch real people at 17.
This, I’m quite confident, since I was able to do some pencil portraits. I still have a lot to improve though, and its been a while since I did art.
4. ❗ Be a freelance artist at 18.
15 yo me wanted to be a freelance artist probably because of the inevitable consequence of existing in the tumblr era (LOL) and during that time I was very inspired by bloggers/illustrators like sheenalovessunsets and abbey sy.
I wish I didn’t delete my tumblr account, or that I archived it at least, because I had a lot of stuff on there, back when I was confident in posting my works and did not care about them being “imperfect”.
Today, art is something that I have a love-hate relationship with. I guess I got burned-out. I can’t remember the last time I did art for enjoyment.
While I wouldn’t say that I was a freelance artist, I did manage to get commissioned from time to time! I also used to sell stickers that I drew at Komiket and also there was this one exhibit where one of my works was featured:
But hey, I’m currently a freelance designer so I guess this goal worked out somehow. It’s not really art, but it’s freelance. 🤣
5. ✅ Be featured on a magazine at 19.
This was an extremely ambitious goal and I laughed when I read it LOL but hey, I somehow got it done albeit being only on a digital magazine. I also wrote the article myself HAHA but nonetheless I’m still quite proud of this because it features a work that I really care about.
6. 🔜Be fluent at speaking the Japanese language at 20.
I’m still (irregularly) studying Japanese but I’m soooo far from being fluent. This is something I would like to focus on in the future, but for now, this is still on hold.
Current progress: Can read and write kana, finished the RRTK deck for kanji recognition but it was quite a long time ago and I honestly do not know if I still remember half of it lol. For vocabulary, I stopped my reviews and I am currently overwhelmed and scared of the state of my anki deck HAHA.
7. 🔛Graduate at 21.
Still in progress, unfortunately. (I’m trying).
8. ✅ Work at 22.
I’m not really employed but I’m currently a freelance web designer, so I guess I’m technically working, righttt??
9. ✅ Go to Japan at 23.
One of the goals I’m happy to have achieved. Went to Japan as a part of the organizing team for the 2019 Asia-Pacific Space Generation Workshop. It was fun!
10. ✅ Meet an astronaut at 24.
I used to be pretty active in attending and organizing space-related events/conferences so I met a lot of astronauts and even managed to shake hands with one of them haha. I guess 15yo me would be happy about that.
11. 🔜Write/Draw a book at 25.
Nope, but I still want to do this someday. I want to write and illustrate an astronomy book for kids! Guess this will be included in my “Things to do before I turn 30 list” haha.
12. 🔜Publish that book at 26.
Same as above.
13. 🔜Build own house at 27.
Not quite there yet hahha.
The Conclusion:
A lot of things have happened since I wrote this list so I was surprised that most of the entries here are things that I still want to accomplish. Looking back, it honestly doesn’t seem that bad as I managed to do about half of the things I wanted to do.
Still, I know that my 15 year old self wouldn’t be proud of who I currently am right now. A lot of things have changed (I know I did), and the past ten years had honestly not been kind. The past me may not be proud, but hey, the present me is– for still being here, for trying, and for striving to be better.
I may no longer be that shiny-eyed person full of hopes and dreams, but right now I can say that after so long, I am slowly learning to dream once again.
Happy birthday, self.
Thank you for sharing this with us, Rheanne.
We’re all very proud of you. 💙
Thank you po for the support as always Kap JA! 😀
good read.
(parentheses are fun)
(go start anki again, or else 🔫)