Hello, Twenty-Four

A letter to a new year, a new chapter, and a newer me.

Dear 24,

I hope you’re kinder.

I hope you take the lessons 23 tried to teach with fire and fury… and offer them with softness. With gentleness. With patience. I hope your growth feels less like being stretched thin and more like being poured into. I hope your days feel a little lighter — like that first deep breath after crying, or the way sunlight feels on freshly washed skin.

I hope you bring love. Not the kind I have to beg for, prove myself worthy of, or perform to keep. But genuine, pure, soul-softening love. Love that feels like ease. Like home. And I hope you bring laughter — the kind that snorts and wheezes and folds me over mid-sentence. And people — real, whole, messy people who feel like joy. Who speak life. Who water the parts of me I’m still learning to tend to.

I want growth, yes. But the kind that places me right.

Right path. Right pace. Right rooms. Let me find myself where I’m meant to be — not because I forced the door open, but because I became the person who belonged there.

I am hoping for better days. Days where I catch my own patterns — the ones that hurt me — before I spiral. Days where I pause. Reflect. Choose better. Be better. I want to become someone who is deeply self-aware… someone who can call out her own destructive behaviours with compassion, not shame.

I want to cultivate healthy relationships — the kind built on mutual respect, presence, kindness, and real connection. I want my circle to feel safe. Uplifting. Nourishing. I want to give what I hope to receive — love that’s rooted and intentional.

And in all of this, I want to become the love I’ve been searching for. Help me soften into it. Help me give it freely. Help me not just receive love, but embody it.

Help me stop outsourcing my worth. I don’t want to live for applause or permission. I want to feel whole without needing a single “like,” compliment, or checkbox ticked. I want to know — deep in my bones — that I am already enough.

This year, I want to dream louder. Chase harder. Speak up braver.

Help me use my voice. Fully. Authentically. Without shrinking or second-guessing. Let me say what needs to be said, ask for what I deserve, and stand where I belong.

I want to step — even if shakily — into my big girl job.

The kind with email signatures and learning curves and responsibilities that make me nervous and proud all at once. I want to grow professionally — to learn, to fail gracefully, to rise again, and to feel like I’m finally building something that matters.

By this time next year, I hope I would’ve written the book that once lived only in my wounds and my whispers. I hope Stay Rooted affirmation cards are no longer just an idea but a gift in someone’s hands, reminding them of who they are. I hope I’ve walked into organisations and lit up rooms — not with ego, but with truth. I hope I’m in the thick of boldly embodying the power within me — no longer tiptoeing around my purpose, but standing in it.

But more than anything, 24…

Help me become more me. The version I’ve been circling towards, through the chaos and clarity of the last few years. Help me find my voice — not the loudest one in the room, but the truest one in my heart.

Welcome, 24.

I’m ready for you.

With love,

Me