22 was weird.

I graduated. Spent countless hours looking for a job. Tried to do meaningful work while also trying to find some kind of purpose. Spent a lot of time with friends. Eventually landed a job. Then packed my life into two suitcases and moved across the country to a city I barely knew.

Somewhere in all that mess, I picked up a few lessons.

If 22 taught me anything, it’s that life doesn’t care about your plans — but it does reward curiosity, effort, and a bit of chaos. Let’s see what 23 has in store.

Here are 23 lessons for my 23rd birthday:

Getting out the door is the hard part. Discipline beats motivation. Make it exist first — you can make it good later. If your body wants to rest, listen. Otherwise, it’ll crash at the worst time.

Do it scared. Be unapologetically you, and let life mold around you. Put yourself in situations where you’re not comfortable. Rejection isn’t failure — sometimes it’s just redirection.

Teaching someone else is one of the best ways to understand yourself better. Other people’s happiness is often better than your own. Only in hindsight — and sometimes never — do things become obviously clear. You are the boss of the thing that’s scaring you — it is not the boss of you.

Travelling is fun — just not as fun as people make it out to be. If you never risk the bad meal, you’ll never have the magical one. You don’t rise to your goals — you fall to your habits. You don’t get good ideas by thinking. You get them by making.

Have integrity. The best way to get to know someone is to share a meal with them. Walk for an hour a day, if you can. On days when you’re extremely busy, walk for two. Focus. If you have a question, ask it.

Don’t underestimate what you can do in a year. Don’t overestimate what you can do in a week.