Another year wiser

It's that time of the year folks and unlike last year, I'm not wishing for Vitamin D this birthday. Now while it would be great, its not in the forefront of my thoughts.

Do you really want to know what I want for my birthday? Of course you do well get your check books ready. This year I don't want a damn thing for my 27th birthday.

Now if you already got me something, I don't want to hurt your feelings by rejecting your gesture, so I'll take the gift if you insist. However, I already got the biggest present I could possibly think of and that was my acceptance letter to NYU. Everything else this year seems so small in comparison. The admission to grad school had a Domino affect on the every avenue of my life.

1. I got rid of every last straggler I was dating/not dating/semi dating. The truth is that if I would have stayed in LA, I would have continued to allow myself to participate in the same song and dance with so many exes. It was a broken record I continued to play like some crazy person. No MAS! Now that I'm in New York, I'm more honest with myself about the men I surround myself. This time my eyes AND ears are open. There will be no repetition of my LA bad habits. I keep my 'deuces' tucked tightly in my wallet and I aint afraid to flash them.

2. I'm working towards a career not just a job. In LA I was making damn good money with my former company. I had everything a 20 something year old could think of. When I graduated from UCLA, there was a list of material things I said I should have by 25. I got them. A car, apartment, a nice amount of disposable income, clothes, a stamped passport and the ability to travel several times a year. Hold up wait, why did I move here again? Oh yeah I was unfufilled. Those things were great to have BUT I was still missing something. Fast forward to this year and I'm a poor graduate student. I'm 100% sure I made the right decision, I feel like this is where I'm suppose to be.

3. My opinion is numero uno. While I respect my friends and their opinions, I DO NOT let them heavily influence my decision making anymore. This all started with my first change of keeping a lot to myself. Now its catapulted itself into more alone time. I'm happiest when I'm in my studio lost in my own thoughts. I am my own psychologist from this point on. This way I get to save my daytime minutes and remove any possibility of a scapegoat. If I make the wrong decision, I quickly apprehend my damn self.

4. I spend less time on social media, gossip sites and anything related. This might be the most shocking of them all, including myself. This Wednesday I experienced something in threes and while I don't normally believe in signs, I took this as one. I was watching True Life and the topic was textaholics. Mind you I was in the middle of a major textersation while watching the episode. I had just finished talking to someone else that week about how much they use their phone. Hi, my name is POT and I just called the kettle black. Then I was reading a post about how a group of friends decided to take a break from social media, gossip sites and instant messaging for a week. I thought hey, maybe I should try that. So ever since this past Wednesday I have not opened my Facebook, checked my twitter feed, instant messaged on my computer (BBM is my only exception), read a gossip site or opened my Google Reader. You know what its not that bad. I'm going to keep this up til my birthday and hopefully I'll have taught myself to put my phone and laptop down a bit more and enjoy my surroundings.

I'm sure there are more but these are just some of the key points. Its time for me to run and enjoy some more of NY. Talib Kweli concert here I come!

Happy Birthday to me!