Be 18 Again, Just for the Night.

It's Monday. I'm Here for You.

The Pick Me Up is a Monday morning newsletter filled with advice, personal stories, and tips to help you get out of bed and jumpstart your week.

Greetings friend.

It’s me — Jen Glantz.

I’ve been a mom for six whole months.

The biggest change I’ve seen in myself is that I’ve become a big softie.

You should have seen me back in the day (AKA March of 2023).

I sped walked around these New York City streets huffing and puffing, with my elbows out.

I hung up on spam callers who rang during dinner.

I cared only about work, work, and more work. I was running a business, a bunch of newsletters, a podcast, a handful of social media feeds, and writing a ton. '

But I’m not like that now.

I walk a lot slower. I try to make eye contact and say hello to people I’ve never met before.

I picked up a spam call at 6pm and said: I hope you have a good day.

I’ve never wanted to work less in my life. I’m not good at delegating but I hired an assistant and I’m slowly letting go of tasks that don’t need my full attention.

I feel lost in so many ways and still playing kickball with waves of postpartum. But I have clarity on new things — like the kind of role model I want to be for my daughter and how I want to spend my time.

The best part of being a mom is having someone watch you do the things nobody else ever cared to see.

And I’m not a perfectionist but I’ve never wanted to do those things better in my life.

In this issue: I gave advice to 18-year-olds, an apartment update, and a gift for a book lover.

Why you’re getting this: I'm Jen Glantz and this is The Pick-Me-Up newsletter. I've been sending it every Monday, for 8-years, to thousands of awesome humans, just like you. Thank you for letting this email live in your inbox. It truly makes my heart explode with joy.

Ps. I’m so grateful that you’re reading this because writing this newsletter every week is my favorite thing. If you know anyone who would adore getting this in their inbox, it would mean the world if you’d share it.

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⚡Instant Pick Me Ups

Ps. All of the picks from the past few months are all inside this list here!

📚: I’ve always wanted to get one of these — such a fun idea if you’re not sure what to read or if you’re looking for a gift for someone who adores books.

📄: How often do you wash your bed sheets? I’ll be honest, we wash ours 1x a month. This article is the push I need change that.

🎙️: Season 3 of this podcast just dropped. It’s one of my favorites.

🛠️: I built a tool! It can write you a personalized maid of honor speech instantly. We also launched a best man version too — check it out!

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I got an email from the sorority I joined when I was in college.

They asked if I’d speak to the current members about life, leadership, and drop some lingering advice.

I decided to say: No.

I’m 35-years-old.

What kind of advice could I possibly give these 18-22-year-old women?

We’re a different generation.

Plus, I’m weathered at this point.

I’ve really lived the heck out of my life and it doesn’t look as rose-colored and gorgeous as it did when I was 18.

I’ve partied with the most tempting forms of success. I’ve floated through a grief cycle. I’ve pulled off the impossible. I’ve survived savage things.

I would have trouble showing up and being anything but brutally honest.

To sit in front of these women and tell them the truth.

That life isn’t going to be as easy as you’d like it to be.

So I figured it would have been reckless to say yes.

I’ve been them before. I remember being 18 and having older alumni swing by and preach the kind of depressing stuff that falls silent on young ears.

I wrote back: Thank you so much for the invite! I’m going to pass my spot off to someone else who still believes in cliches.

But for some reason, for days, I couldn’t press send.

Something kept stopping me from backing out, from saying no.

What if I could go back and be 18 again? Just for one night?

I wouldn’t want to hear allll the stuff that was going to happen in the future.

I wouldn’t want to be told what to do and what not to do.

I’d want an ounce of truth and a hug.

So I wrote a reply and pressed send:

And deeply thought about what I was going to say.

Last week, it happened. This is a summary of what I said:

Everything about your life is going to change — unexpectedly and constantly. Try not to be so married to who you are right now. Your personality, your friendships, the career path you think you’re on, it might all flip flop, and then flip flop again, and then get stuck inside the blenders of life, and come out looking like something you’ve never seen before. Hope for that because change is sometimes the best thing that will happen to you. Sometimes it won’t make sense — who you are or what you’re doing — and those times will be sad and scary. But hold on to the goals you want in life, just stay flexible and open on what could happen to you as you’re getting there.

I don’t know if people liked my advice or if they even listened. When I was finished with my passionate monologue, I asked if anyone had questions for me.

One person asked how to get more followers on TikTok.

I swallowed the magic of feeling 18 again and climbed back into my life as a 35-year-old entrepreneur mom in Brooklyn who might not see the world as simple as I used to but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in magic.

Be consistent, I told her. And don’t give up, regardless of how many likes you get.

Maybe that’s the advice I should have stuck with. Maybe that’s all they needed to hear for now, for later, forever.

Love,

Jen

👩 Real Life Pick-Me-Ups

• We signed our lease. We’ll live in this tiny one bedroom apartment foreveerrrr! Just kidding. But for now, we’ll stay here. Did we make a big mistake? 90% of people might say yes. But we feel okay about the decision. At 3am when the baby is up crying —- and we’re all up crying with her in the same bedroom — I feel a little maybe we did the wrong thing. But most other times throughout the day — it feels okay that we are staying here.

• Everyone says it takes courage and strength to forgive someone. It absolutely does. But it also takes courage and strength to decide that you don’t want to forgive a person and you don’t want them in your life.

• My friend Steph sent Gemma a postcard from Rome! She wrote such a sweet message it made me cry. I’m really grateful for the friends I have in my life — especially the ones becoming such sweet role models to my baby.

  

Until next week (say hello in the comments and introduce yourself),

Jen Glantz