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Arrivederci 2023

Arrivederci 2023

What I’ll remember fondly about the year.

Emily Sundberg's avatar
Emily Sundberg
Dec 29, 2023
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Arrivederci 2023
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Look how many hair colors and mental states we’ve had together.

I just went back to my old newsletters to screenshot the selfies I put on the top of each one, and I looked so sad at the beginning of the year. My life hasn’t changed that much since then. I live in the same apartment, I spend time with the same people, but I think I felt constricted for a lot of reasons. I wasn’t able to take up space (and this doesn’t mean living chaotically and without abandon, it just means being myself), and I was suffering because of that.

Looking back at the year, I can recognize when I was bitter, wrong or unfair. I think that’s an important habit to learn as you get older. I don’t regret any of it, but it’s clocked. I can also recognize when I made respectable decisions for myself and others. I’m big on self-auditing. I say this a lot, but you guys really make me happy. Doing this letter every day keeps me accountable, and it’s created this funny equation — the more I put into my real life, the more I can put into my online life. This letter doesn’t work if I don’t have a life.

What I’ll remember fondly about 2023:

  • Listening to whales under the ocean in Hawaii

  • Finding a secret grotto on Long Island that I swam at all summer.

  • Driving around the farm at Le Doyenne at night with a gin and tonic in my hand, and waking up there in the morning hungover

  • Ash Wednesday

  • Seeing Close in-theater

  • Hollywood Baby

  • Meeting a lot of you in person

  • My friend Anna’s BDSM-themed bachelorette party at Keen’s

  • Exploring Orcas Island

  • Hanging out at my alma mater FIT a lot (for my fragrance class and speaking to classes)

  • Buying myself a custom Clementina jacket

  • Facing fears like rock climbing in Maine and calling the front desk at hotels for tampons

  • Making new friends, learning from them, and getting to travel with them

  • Watching friends blow up their lives (intentionally or unintentionally) and watching them rebuild better, smarter, hotter

  • The thrill (and disappointment) and inevitable thrill again, of chasing Keith McNally

  • Learning the names of more people at the businesses in my neighborhood after living in the same apartment for 5 years

  • This crunchy, crispy mushroom at Tempura Matsui

  • Learning to blowout my hair

  • Frequently visiting my bodega cat

  • Making more money

  • SOS

  • Being right about people

  • Going to Naples, FL with my high school friends and ripping cigarettes and Twisted Teas for three days

  • Becoming really fucking good at poker

  • Seeing Midnight Run in the theater

  • Eating these peaches at Via Carota with my mom

  • Going on an oyster bar road trip from Connecticut to Rhode Island

  • Live sports

  • Outdoor showers


Some questions people sent in this week:

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