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A month of love and reunion | Stephanie's February 2026
- 12 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Life has been so bustling lately that I’ve barely had a moment to breathe so I thank y’all for your patience on this entry (to my 1 reader). February was a short yet extra eventful month with all sorts of emotions, I feel like I aged multiple seasons in a blink of an eye and now winter has already transitioned to Spring. As I’m reading my notes app its honestly crazy how much happened this month that I almost forget had I not documented it in my app.
Now onto the recap~
– Stephanie
Lifestyle, Lows, Lessons
The month started with a bang - I FINALLY ( year + in the making ) found and hired gardeners and they cleaned up my yard real good. This was the best $400 I spent. I’m extra happy knowing that I made it happen and didn’t keep putting it to the side, as intimidating as it was to be researching and calling up randoms online and trusting them to come visit my house and do my yard lol. I’m even more happy now seeing my mom not break her back to clean my yard and how beautiful all my trees are blooming now. The clean yard was perfect to welcome Lunar New Year.
I was also able to spend more time with Pearl and Sadie, as well as Ashley. I’ve been meaning to spend more time with my friends. I was able to go to Guy Fieri’s tailgate event for free - tons of free food, brand activations, and a concert by Loud Luxury - no complaints here and it was just a few minutes away from my house. It felt as if SF was starting to become SF again - the bustling city it was before covid.
As cliche as it sounds, February truly felt like a month of love in all aspects of my life - ups and downs and all. We can start with my professional life and get work over with aha, jokes aside - this month a number of colleagues started opening up to me, and stakeholders sent out appreciation and recognition emails to me. It made me truly feel seen (not sure if love is the right word here but seen). I was also able to finally catch up with my og mentor (back from my internship days in 2018) in person - a lunch ended up to us yapping for hours and hours long from all things to marketing, life, to her support of crafting my next chapter. And that while my manager and director may not have the means to support my career the way I need at the moment, I felt good knowing that I’ve touched the lives of my colleagues and stakeholders with my work.
Now my romantic love-life, I’m still seeing my Partner - we made it to 3 months and had so many new memories each week this month. Starting the month with museum dates, we got to check out the Academy of Sciences and then later at the end of the month we got the check out the Exploratorium. Not sure why but visiting both these museums wasn’t just wholesome, but it made me feel like a kid again. We had tons of inside jokes and a new obsession with hamtaro. Then came Valentines Day, our first Valentines day together and also my first time ever having a boyfriend for a Valentine. Honesty I didn’t have any expectations other than to celebrate our love, but I can’t say that in the back of my mind I was curious how much he’d plan for Valentines day since he’s not really a planner. While I wasn’t expecting anything grand, I also must admit that a part of me would’ve been let down if he didn’t do anything at all lol. Well all’s to say he exceeded my expectations and I felt very loved this year on Valentine’s day - he booked us the coziest stay at Senza in Napa, gave me the biggest beautiful bouquet at midnight, and the cutest Hamtaro notebook (what are the odds I also made him a Hamtaro card heh). While all of these grand gestures is nice, I equally really enjoyed our time having a simple breakfast and just enjoying each other’s company and conversations. This was also a month of our first double dates. On somewhat short notice, we ended up having a double date with my bestie Ashley - a night of competitive mini golfing turned bar hopping and lots of laughter and deep convos. It made me extra heartwarmed to see my Partner get along with my bestie Ashley and her mans - at somepoint Ashley and I yapped for the longest time while our partners had their own long yap sesh. The following weeks Jin and I also finally had our SB reunion with our Partners! #genuineboys I can’t believe that was 10 years ago when we met and would talk about when we’ll find our genuine Partner one day. And that a few years ago we joked about coming back to SB and showing our Partners around and that we actually made it happen now. The trip started off with a long drive and long work day lol and impromptu nose bleed sigh but all that was forgotten once we arrived to SB and I was so happy to see everyone becoming fast friends. From jokes to drinks to downtown bar hopping, it’s always a fun time the moment we reunite as if time hadn’t passed. The night took quite an unexpected turn of events lol more on that later - but overall we made the best we could out of the trip and it was so nice to reunite with my bestie and go to our favorite places, while showing our Partners and sharing stories about our lives in SB. I still think about blenders, lilys tacos, zaytoon, and the most zen corepower yoga class about how there’s a lot of work we need to do in this world to give more love and compassion. I’m super thankful for the love and compassion from both my bestie Ashley and Jin.
Now to the family - this was a month that was extra full. Lunar New Year - the biggest holiday my family celebrates, February was full of yummy food and some muchvneeded family time. While things have changed since my sister and I moved out, Lunar New Year was a day that felt as if we had reunited back to the childhood days. What’s more my mom had prepared food to go to give to my Partner to try. What’s even more is that my Partner’s family decided to cook an early Lunar New Year dinner for me because I couldn’t make it on the celebration day (I was with my parents). Both gestures from my mom and my Partner’s family made me feel extra loved and feel supported.
Of course as this month had the highest of highs, I must also be honest that it was full of some of the toughest lows. Work was insanely busy and continues to be - further reinforcing how I need to stay focused on crafting my next chapter. On a personal note, I’ve also gained so much weight - likely due to stress and also my poor late eating habits. Honestly so much that it made me spiral lol ifykyk we don’t talk about that here. Then during our SB trip, one thing led to another and I won’t get too deep or explicit on it here, but we had a disagreement and miscommunication that blew up. At the same time, SB weekend I got a call from my parents that my grandfather was feeling super ill and that he’s going to the hospital. When it rains it truly poors. I felt so conflicted with the situation / miscommunication at hand in SB, and then powerless to help my family that was hours away. While we discussed things through (which honestly shoutout to communication instead of brushing things to the side) - this incident also had me do some self reflection and self awareness as well in how I can do better next time.
I must say it was a lot going back to back from Super Bowl weekend to Valentines day to Lunar New Year to Santa Barbara - but I also feel so fortunate to have so much to look forward to in life, and so many people who go out of their way to make me feel loved whether that’s family and friends to spend life with that I feel overfilled with love this month in all aspects of life. I have so much to be thankful for, but I continuously count my blessings on the people in my life.
My pick of the month: Lunar New Year
Honestly it was so hard to choose - but I decided on Lunar New Year because as I’m thinking through the many events and people in my life this month, I have to thank my family for instilling the morals and values in me that led me to surround myself with similar caring people. I always knew I cared for my own family, but I didn’t know much the topic of family meant to me this month beyond my own immediate family. From my grandparents falling ill and how I want to spend more time with them, to seeing my mom and my Partner’s family both cook us food to give to one another, to my loving friends who continue to make life fun together despite our disagreements.
February truly lived up and exceeded my expectations. While this month had the lowest of lows. Valentines Day symbolizing love, I definitely felt so loved by all the people in my life this month. Lunar New Year symbolizing reunions as its the one day everyone returns home - this year Lunar New Year also lived it up as I got to reunite with my family and also my bestie Jin. Through the tough times - I had so much warmth in my life and more. While I don’t know what awaits (and hopefully no more tough times March pls) March has already been so eventful and I can’t wait to catch y’all up on all that’s went on too.
Chat soon in April,
– Stephanie
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