Growing up in the Northeast, I know January is a blah month for many. It is gray and cold, still darker than we would like. January is the month when we step into a new year full of hope, yet hungry for warmer temperatures, longer days, and more light, both around us and within us.
January is also my birth month. On January 23rd, I made my entrance into the world. As a Buffalonian, my favorite story is the one about my arrival during an ice storm, at an inconvenient hour around 4:20 in the morning, and my mom’s disbelief that after three boys, her one and only girl had finally arrived. It is my favorite story to hear, the story of my beginning.
Now, I regularly perform my own versions of my children’s birth stories, carefully edited for age appropriateness. Still, there is something undeniably magical about our arrival into life. It begins quietly, and then we are off, moving through milestone after milestone, year after year, as both small and significant moments unfold all around us.
I started The Forty Files with a list, and I never want that list to end. If I were a corporate America worker bee, I would have had my annual review by now and likely been fired for not meeting quota because I am undeniably behind. Instead, I am a creative and an educator, measuring success differently, more abstractly. I aim to be lucrative with my heart and humble in my quest, and so I carry on. Another year added to the list.
As we get older, it feels strange that open sharing seems to fade. Maybe the world wears people down. Maybe judgment replaces curiosity and doubt replaces ignition. I am not sure. What I do know is this. I do not want to stop sharing. I am a dreamer, trying to do, live, and make the most of this messy, magnificent middle aged life. So, I present the 2026 list.
- Publish. It’s been a dream since forever. It’s ongoing. I’m picking up the pen, literally. ✅ 🔄
- Rockstar shape status. I don’t even know what this is exactly, but I want to look in the mirror and love my reflection freely and proudly. 🔄
- Write a song with Ed Sheeran. I told you this was random, but whatever it’s my list.
- Go the place that explains the dreams in my head aka the home of Anne Shirley. Prince Edward Island, here I come.
- Coffee with Dan Fogelman. Also, I’m not okay about This Is Us ending.
- Work at Z100 with Elvis Duran.
- Go to Woodstock Vermont and take a basic bridge photo. Google it!
- Spend more time in Buffalo, New York aka my hometown.
- Visit the places/homes my grandparents were born.
- Learn to make sourdough with Taylor Swift.
- A trip with college friends. Sherri, I miss you.
- Celebrate someone’s 100th birthday.
- Watch a Broadway show come to life.
- Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.
- Work on “the show.” If you know, you know.
- Be in more photos with my children.
- Go to the ocean more. 🔄
- Go on tour with a band. Sincerely, I really feel like I’ve missed a moment here.
- Bartend.
- Write letters to former teachers. 🔄
- I want to learn to curl and host a curling tournament.
- Bring a WNY meat raffle to the garden state.
- Go whitewater rafting.
- Speak to a big crowd. I love big crowd energy.
- Climb a mountain. Why the hell not? ✅ 🔄
- Family interviews. They’ll torture me with sarcasm, but I want them on tape.
- Have all the old family VHS tapes converted to CD and/or digital files.
- Help someone believe in something bigger and better again.
- Volunteer with Special Olympics.
- Run a 5k. I am not a runner, I hate running, but I love the feeling of completing a race.
- Gather with friends more. I look forward to celebrating and savoring the relationships in my life.
- Plan a trip to Paris. I’ve never been and I can’t live vicariously through Emily in Paris. It simply won’t do.
- Visit as many new coffee shops as I can. Coffee is everything. 🔄
- Find my fashion style. Seriously, I’ve got to get out of these leggings.
- Earn big money, give big money.
- Get a major brand partnership for the blog.
- Publish a journal.
- Podcast.
- Go on the Today Show.
- Begin and end each day with a thank you prayer. 🔄
- Work on Influencers that Matter project
- Home refresh 🔄
- Hit 100k followers (Currently have 140)
- Take a nice family picture for a Christmas card
This January, on the grayest of days, with cold, bitter winds, I find real joy in my life and in the opportunity to continually keep this list. Some of it is inspired by artists who share vulnerably; other parts have no rhyme or reason at all, just the quiet knowing that I am still attempting, still revising, still here.
The Forty Files 