The Beginning

Hi. My name is Louisa. In about a month I will be celebrating my 24th birthday, and I feel that it’s high time I did something productive with my life.

At this point, I am experiencing a sense of loss of control over the course my life is taking. This is partially due to the fact that I am, as previously noted, almost 24 years old, and the years surrounding the quarter-life mark are a notoriously confusing period for most people. That being said, I do feel the need to bring some amount of awareness to what often seems like an aimless path of existence. So I’ve resolved to record my life.

A little about me, since I have not previously been keeping track of my days:

  • I’ve lived my whole life in the Boston area. I’m half bored of it, half nicely comfortable here.
  • I’m adopted. I think this fact is causing me a lot of confusion in my life but I’m a bit scared to tackle the situation directly.
  • I dropped out of Pomona College after a month and a half and have been trying to get my life on track ever since (not that it was on track when I was in school, either). I’ve been working and doing internships, mostly.
  • I suffer from depression and anxiety. These illnesses affect every day of my life and probably always will. The good side is that I believe I am a more caring and compassionate person for living through them.
  • Some positive things: I’m currently working at Ben & Jerry’s and at Harvard Business School, and volunteering at an agency advocating for Portuguese speakers in the Boston area. I’m pretty busy. I have a bunch of good friends. I generally like my life (but of course feel like it needs more direction).

With that background info out of the way, I’ll proceed to the good stuff: what actually happens to me as I live my life. I vow to record things as soon after they happen as possible, and to do so in any way that seems fit. Maybe by having a record to look back on, I’ll start to be able to discern patterns that will help me to understand how and why my life is meaningful.