Pop that champagne—you deserve it

A reminder to celebrate all of the wins

In this newsletter: for those who need it (and those who don’t), a reminder to always celebrate the wins in life, both big and small. If you’ve found your way here but are not yet subscribed, here, let me help you with that (it’s free):

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There’s a bottle of champagne sitting in my fridge that I bought over six months ago. The champagne was meant to mark a moment in my book journey, although what moment I hadn’t quite decided, and so that bottle stayed uncorked. When I wrote the last word of my manuscript, the bottle stayed unopened. When I finished my third round of edits, the bottle was left untouched. When my book, Call You When I Land, was published by HarperCollins this past November, that bottle still remained uncorked.

When I wrapped up the first half of my book tour—seven events across five cities in one month—even then, I didn’t open the champagne. When my book was named a Staff Pick by Apple Books, featured by Good Morning America, made the cover of Cosmopolitan, and was featured in the new issue of Real Simple—the bottle still stayed in the fridge. When I began seeing my book sitting alongside bestsellers at shops and newsstands in airports across the country—something I once wished for—even then, I didn’t pop the champagne.

Finally, I stopped to think about that untouched bottle. Why hadn’t I opened it yet? What the hell was I waiting for? God knows I’d splurged on and opened champagne for lesser occasions throughout my life. Hell, I one time popped champagne for a pizza night just because I needed a midweek pick-me-up. What was going on here?

I realized then that the reason the champagne had stayed unopened was because I’d been waiting. I was still holding out for some magical-yet-to-be-identified something in my book journey where I felt I had truly earned that glass of bubbly. Even when I saw my book in bookstores or read about my book in magazines, the first thought I had was: it’s not enough. I regret this now.

Admittedly, I had been waiting for the sort of success every author dreams of, but few ever get: a high-profile book club pick, a NYT bestseller status, a producer interested in film/TV adaptation. I’d been waiting for someone or something to tell me that my book was a success rather than deciding so myself. I’ve been grappling with this realization. The words “arrogance” and “entitlement” admittedly come to mind. It wasn’t that I expected these unicorn opportunities to waltz in so much as I held out hope that something spectacular would happen, missing the fact that something spectacular did happen. I’d been waiting for Halley's Comet to fly across the sky of my life, only to miss the stars already glittering around me.

“I’d been waiting for Halley's Comet to fly across the sky of my life, only to miss the stars glittering around me.”

I came across a quote from Siddhārtha Gautama (AKA Buddha) that reads: “Be where you are; otherwise, you will miss your life.” In the past month since my book was released, I’ve achieved things I only dreamed of, but rather than experience them fully, I kept looking ahead, my eyes trained on that elusive and ever-moving goalpost of success. By now, I realize this is how one misses their life and that rather than allow myself to enjoy each sparkling moment of the past month, I chose to wait.

The end of a year brings reflection and, with it, a tendency to look forward, but maybe the best any of us can do is simply look around instead, reminding ourselves that what we have now—right here in this very moment—is worth celebrating. And so, I’m going to finally pop that champagne because the very fact that I wrote a book is worth celebrating, no matter what does or doesn’t come of it. And I hope that you, dear reader, will always remember to celebrate your wins, too.

Life is too short not to.

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