24
Twenty-four has been one of my favorite numbers my whole life. I like the evenness of it, the way it multiplies and divides so tidily into so many other nice and tidy whole numbers. It's 2 and 6 and 8 and 4 and 3 and 12, and it's the day of the month I was born. In 2023, I decided 2024 would be the best year yet, and I started creating a world for myself where that could come true. When I got engaged on January 1st, it felt like the perfect beginning to the perfect year, and the first couple of months held a lot of promise. Then the promises shattered and one thing after another after another threw my life into chaos and my heart into pieces. I never imagined how difficult this year would be in so many different ways. Now, we are at the end of my favorite number year, and I realize I was right. This has been the very best year of my life so far. I have grown this year more than any other five years combined. I have proven to myself that all the work I have done has not been fo...