A Gratitude Letter to 2024

The ending of the year has me reminiscing on the past 12 months and things I’ve lost, gained, learned, and can bring into the new year. I know another year passing makes everyone feel a certain type of way, and it’s been on my mind to write a post about it.

The ending of the year usually has everyone (me included) making the highlight reel of their year. I love to watch these as it shows what people have loved the most in the past 12 months, but I also think they can be isolating. If all you did this year was simply make it through--that is beautiful too. Whether this year had a slew of accomplishments or grief, take the time to celebrate the small wins.

I was in a workshop in January in which I was asked my word for 2024. I automatically thought "unstoppable," but another word rang truer to how I feel ending this year. Intentional. Intentional in my time, my energy, people I pour into, and in my career. I'm feeling more aligned in my identity more than ever and cannot wait for 2025.

I hope you can relate to this post and that it makes you feel something. Maybe this inspires you to write a letter to 2024 or reflect in a way that feels honest and good for you.

To the beautiful year of 2024,

Thank you for another 365 days around the sun. Days full of good health, friends, family, and a lot of “I hope this day never ends” moments. Thank you for keeping my peeps safe and healthy for another year.

Thank you for keeping my sister safe and leading her on a wonderful new journey. Thank you for allowing our relationship to grow and strengthen. Thank you for taking care of my brother after his ACL tear and for all the beautiful moments he and Caroline got to experience. Thank you for keeping my parents healthy, despite a few scares, and making sure they got the best care possible. Thank you for taking care of my dad and keeping him strong. Thank you for the sunny coffee mornings in New York I await all winter. Thank you for the moments with my mom that I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.

Thank you for countless ski days that were filled with sunshine, laughter, and feeling like I was 12 years old again. Days in the mountains that made me stop and relish in my wonderful life. Bluebird days with my best friend who is down for any trouble in the heart of Vermont! Thank you for an endless Indian summer of swimming, concerts, trips home, and time with my favorite people. For the feeling of jumping in the pond and dancing to country music.

You gave me some of the best memories of my life thus far. I say that every year, but somehow, they just get better and better. With those memories, thank you for the dark moments this year. Thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone to do what I knew I needed to do. For giving me strength to leave my old job and embark on the journey of something new. Even when I was unsure, you taught me I must take risks. Do it scared! Thank you for showing me what leadership looks like in management and within myself this year.

Thank you for letting me start a new job and realize it wasn’t right for me. Thank you for giving me the courage to pivot, to say this doesn’t work for me, and allowing me to change paths. Thank you for giving me the space to advocate for myself and know I am worth so much more. To stand up to people and speak my truth no matter how uncomfortable it was.

Thank you for isolating days at my job that forced me to dig deep and create a blog. A blog that means so much to me and others, as shown by the hundreds of messages. Thank you for giving me a space to write again and process my feelings in a powerful way.

Thank you for teaching me I deserve friendships that treat me with kindness and reciprocity. For giving me the courage to end these relationships no matter how much it hurt. Thank you having people walk on me and testing my abandonment issues. For finding closure and not letting them reach out even when I wished they would. Thank you for leading me into rooms where people were speaking poorly of me and teaching me to walk out with my head held higher.

Thank you for leading me to people who stand by me no matter what. For letting me figure out what a true friend is. Thank you for showing me again, family is the strongest, most true sense of friendship. And thanks for showing me that not everyone deserves the warmest, most loving parts of me.

I know I struggled with my love life this year. I was so eager to be loved, to be wanted, that I made questionable decisions...that led to teaching moments! (classic) Thank you for letting me realize I don’t need to beg someone to choose me. Thank you for showing me I don’t have to give my soul and body away to be loved. Thank you for the awful feeling of waking up somewhere I shouldn’t and feeling so alone. For the nights of wishing some shitty guy would pick me when it was clear he never would. Thank you for not letting him choose me. Thank you for helping me realize I deserve more. For teaching me boundaries.

Thank you for leading me to a new routine this year which included more Barry’s, SoulCycle, and finding my personal trainer. Thank you for putting Built by Biron in my life and finding strength in myself that I didn't know was possible. For the days I continued to show up for myself at 6am with newfound self-discipline. For the self-love that’s come from my fitness journey thus far and the focus on taking care of myself.

Thank you for changing my relationship with alcohol. For the mornings I’d wake up crying my eyes out, irritable, and the dark thoughts. For realizing this isn’t healthy if not in moderation. For retiring “Booze Fest.” For helping me realize some people will only want to be around me when I’m drinking and the life of the party. Thank you for creating intention for me to shift my habits.

2024, we’ve become close friends in the past 365 days. There’s been so many laughs where my stomach hurt, smiles so big my face hurt, and mornings I danced around my kitchen. There’s been so many moments I felt free, I felt like I was young again, and moments I said, “It’s a good day for living.”

2024, thank you. For growth in all parts of my life. For leaving people who didn't deserve me. For pulling the rug out from under me. For the best days and some of the loneliest days. For the days I felt like my soul was broken. For the nights I wished never ended, and the mornings I spent dancing in my kitchen. For making me pivot, for taking away familiarity. For the moments I looked around at all my people in a room and felt whole.

What a year. What a beautiful life that messiness is welcomed in! I am so lucky.

Thank you 2024, for making me live. Because this is life, right? It’s all about living. So go out and do it. 2025, I’m coming for you.

Happy New Year!

-Charty