I turn 25 on February 6th.

For various reasons, I have always had a complicated relationship with my birthday. The attention that it drew to myself always felt obnoxious, but I have also been blessed in many, many ways through my birthday. The past several years, countless number of friends and family have come together to pool their resources, often raising more than $1,000, to get me things like Crocs, a KitchenAid Mixer, cold press juicer, and funds to fix my beat-up 2002 Honda Civic. I am incredibly thankful for everybody's love and generosity.

This year, I initially was going to let my birthday pass in obscurity--which wouldn't have been hard considering I deleted my Facebook and also recently relocated to New York--but some time ago I heard about people "donating" their birthdays to support charity: water and it has been in the back of my mind since (shoutout to Grace Ko). Why should I let this opportunity to use this day for a great cause go to waste? I want to kick off my quarter century making making a difference. Charity: water partners with local organizations around the world to fund projects providing access to clean water in rural communities. They are pretty legit, innovative, and apparently 100% of our funds go directly to the cause of providing precious people clean water!

SOOOOOOOOOOO

In lieu of receiving gifts this year, I am hoping people will donate to this great cause. My goal is to raise at least $1,000 because it has been done before for less meaningful causes (thanks for the fancy kitchen appliances)! Hopefully we can reach this goal by 2/6! Recommended donation is $25 (1 dollar for every year)~ But feel free to contribute however you can. Any little bit helps! With $1,000, 33 people will get access to clean water.

When the project is complete complete, charity: water will send us photos and GPS coordinates so we can see the exact community we helped.

Thank you!