Life at 28... advice, marriage, nearing 30

Summary

At 28, Leah reflects on aging, work, relationships, and what she hopes life will look like in her 30s. She says moving to the Bay Area has been beautiful, and she’s excited about a future that feels calmer, more grounded, and more focused on family and health.

Key reflections and advice

• Approach getting older as a new chapter: Leah sees turning 30 as exciting rather than frightening. She hopes to bring the courage and clarity she built in her 20s into bigger creative and career projects.
• Take care of your body: Noticing changes, such as a gray hair, has reminded her that years of all-nighters and pushing herself took a toll. Aging can’t be controlled, she says, but better care and healthier habits matter.
• Show up consistently in creative work: Her intention for the year is to be brave, create regularly, and focus less on perfection, performance, or other people’s feedback.
• Understand the work behind online videos: Making videos involves far more than posting—editing, emails, administration, and brand negotiations can take up much of a creator’s time.
• Build a healthier relationship with money: Notice spending habits and patterns, which can be shaped by childhood and the environment someone grew up in. Leah also mentions a workshop series she helped develop with a therapist, using journaling, guided meditations, and art-making.
• Ease anxiety and urgency: When she feels rushed, Leah takes deep breaths and reminds herself, “This is not an emergency.” She recommends focusing on one task at a time and identifying the real priority.
• Reframe failure: She likes the thought, “I can’t wait to see why this didn’t work out,” and believes setbacks may make room for something better.
• Find grounding in nature: Parks and learning to identify local plants help her feel connected and comforted. She describes miner’s lettuce as edible, but also points out that poisonous hemlock grows nearby. Her foraging examples are not a substitute for reliable plant-identification guidance.
• Keep acting amid uncertainty: A book about societal collapse helped her remember that meaningful lives and community care still matter, even when the future feels uncertain. Leah says investing in people and improving the present can help shape what comes next.
• For long-distance relationships: Keep building your own life through hobbies, friends, and interests; have a shared idea of when you might live in the same city; and consider exchanging a letter to read when you miss each other.

Work, style, and relationships

• Leah’s dream is to open a calm, welcoming space serving nourishing, plant-based food. She imagines offerings such as fresh soy milk with jujube dates and black sesame, and pumpkin-millet congee.
• She prefers owning fewer things and choosing quality, versatile pieces over trends. She recently bought her first pair of jeans in six years: dark-indigo, 70s-cut organic-cotton denim.
• She is open to having children and finds friends’ approaches to parenting inspiring. Marriage has also become a subject of discussion and planning, though she describes it as both exciting and nerve-racking.
• Favorite dates include hikes, road trips, vegan food, plant and herbalism workshops, kelp foraging, and trying new activities. She and her partner also play backgammon before bed.

Notable locations, products, books, and speakers

• Locations: San Francisco and the Bay Area; the Panhandle Exercise Park; Golden Gate Park.
• Product and brand: Sézane dark-indigo, 70s-cut organic-cotton jeans. She also mentions Sézane wide-leg jeans and basic tees.
• Books: The Courage to Be Disliked; Read This When Things Fall Apart.
• Workshop: Rooted in Ease, a money-relationship workshop series developed with a therapist.
• Speakers: Leah is the main speaker; her partner joins near the end to talk about dates and shared activities. Leah also quotes a letter signed by Chris Begley.