December Is Going to Be a Doozy—Who's Ready?
It's a race to the deadline finish line, and I fear I may be the last to cross.
photo credit: ME
Greetings from Beverly Hills! I just got my nails done at Townhouse (they were kind enough to invite me in), and the city’s annual Deck the Hills slogan was in full effect. Although, it doesn’t feel wintery—we’re not there yet. In fact, depending on the day, it doesn’t even feel like fall (which, btw, we’re still in the midst of until Dec. 21 so keep chugging those PSLs). Today felt kind of weird, TBH. It was one of those days where I felt like the only person in existence. Ever had those?
In other news, I was full of so much gratitude on Thanksgiving. This has been an insane, remarkable, whirlwind year (10 years in the making, might I add)—and I debated doing a Thanksgiving post or saving a 2024 tribute post for end of year. I’m going with the latter. So stay tuned for that later this month.
BUT… I do want to acknowledge how triggering the holidays can be. This year especially, I’ve had close friends lose a family member, struggle with physical health matters, or deal with other obstacles that certainly don’t make the holidays chipper. I completely understand feelings of loneliness and despair that particular dates on the calendar can bring. I think we’d be surprised at how many people experience emptiness or discomfort. There are definitely particular holiday triggers for me over the course of each year, so I empathize with anyone going through whatever it is. It sucks, but whatever the holiday, I try to tell myself, it’s just one day. Or I try to do something productive so I feel accomplished. I know each holiday affects everyone differently, so my feelings towards something will differ from yours. But I guess the bottom line is you’re definitely not alone if you’re feeling some type of way right now.
Going home for holidays is interesting though. Like, do you ever really feel like an adult? I’ll bring my laptop to the local coffee shop solo, as if I’m home from college. I’ll see families walk in, fresh from football practice, with parents who absolutely have to be my age. Being an LA adult (kids or not) is so different from being a suburbs adult. Also, my mom dropped me off at the Chapman University bars (aka very dive) in Old Towne Orange (iykyk). I went out with two high school friends of mine who have kids, so I didn’t feel as guilty about the fact that we were taking Chapman Ave. by storm until 2:00 am.
Ok, so now we’re into December. Crazy, huh? I’m torn between this year was amazing, I never want it to end—and I’m so overwhelmed, I need this year to end. I’ve talked about this before, but I definitely overcommitted this year. I also worked extremely hard. This was my peak work-hard-play-hard year. I’m the first to admit there’ve definitely been years I’ve played much harder than worked. This year was even-keeled.
During my full-time working girl days, the holidays were so chill. I was such a diligent employee who barely took any sick or vacation days, so when the end of year finally approached, I had all these looming paid days off that coincided with the days we already got off for Xmas/NYE. It was smooth sailing for like two weeks, and I loved melting into the couch watching Melrose Place reruns. But ask any freelancer and they’ll tell you such is not the case here. We’re busy catching up on our invoices and making sure we meet EOY deadlines all the way up to the very last minute.
I’m really proud of everything I accomplished in 2024, but I won’t fully commend myself until I’m toasting champagne when the ball drops. You see, now that the year is coming to a close, there’s no more pushing off articles “just one more month.” So basically, I’m wrapping up my two holiday gift guides, and then I have three major, extremely time-consuming features, and then my five or six monthly recurring assignments. That’s not even including holiday events and festivities. If history repeats itself, there could be two weeks straight of back-to-back end-of-year catchups.
Listen, I am not complaining. I am sooo grateful beyond belief. The more you work and put yourself out there, the more opportunities come your way. I’m so excited about all the incredible people I met this year, places I visited and stories I was able to share publicly. It’s ok to be overwhelmed and grateful at the same time. But anyway, as we kick off December, it’ll be a nail biter. But we’ve got this!
If one of your clients was submitted for one of my gift guides, hang tight. The guides will likely go live on Monday and Tuesday of next week. I’ve never been one to publish early—plus, people are still shopping, it’s fine ;).
I will conclude with this: I’m so thankful to all of you for reading. As of today, I’ve reached 200 subscribers. Wow. For Substack, that’s a great place to be at the five-month mark. It’s been so fulfilling being able to share my opinions and insights with so many industry peers who I didn’t even know existed (and vice versa). Please reach out any time with questions, thoughts, all the things. I really want to build a community of likeminded individuals.
Until next time… <3