Hi y'all it's Annelies and if you are watching this on the day that I'm posting it today is my
27th birthday considering whenever you're watching this is definitely not July 10th 2022 it is no
longer my 27th birthday Hello from 27 year old Annelies that feels weird to say but uh yeah
with the end of my first year of grad school and traveling which I was in Paris on my 27th birthday
how freaking cool but I just had a lot going on that got this video delayed so um I'll just plan
better for next year film this even earlier so I can make sure to get it up on my actual birthday
thank you to everybody who sent me birthday wishes by the way but um enjoy the video I'm gonna be 27.
I have always wanted to do like a video that kind of commemorates my birthday something birthday
related people have done like the 27 things I've learned in 27 years and I was like one that video
would be insanely long especially the older you get and secondly try not to repeat things but
like do something as an annual tradition that's gonna be hard and then I thought about how this
YouTuber I watch her name is Morgan Yates she did the same interview different year interview that
she got the inspo from Billie Eilish and some magazine did a same interview different year
and they've done it for like five years with her I think Morgan has done like three or four and both
of their interviews have different questions and I thought that would be a fun thing to do for my
birthday it's a tradition I can start this year I can always come back to it and just like see how
I've changed none of the questions are like too insanely deep there's also not like 27 questions
so I feel like this video isn't going to be like 800 years long so I made my own set of questions
I think would work best for me and I would find interesting to see how I change my answers or
if I do change my answers over the years and I will actually leave all the questions that I'm
going to use that I kind of came up with in the description of this video I'm not going to leave
the answers that's what the video is for so I guess without any further Ado this is my same
interview different year year one question number one what advice would you give yourself a year ago
this sounds like it would be on like a Hallmark card or a really like cheesy Instagram
inspirational post or something like that or something that like a middle-aged Midwestern
mom would have in like a cute font hanging on their wall in her bedroom or something but the
advice I would give myself a year ago would to be to not let other people control your happiness
and that you are in control of your happiness I would say the thing that changed for me is when
I realized and it's not like I didn't know this but it just kind of like sunk in again and in
a really applicable way that I was in control of my own happiness and if there were things
in my life that were not making me happy to no longer entertain them or have them in my life
so it's a little bit of like a life is short do what makes you happy type of thing you are
in control of your own happiness and if there's something or someone that's not making you happy
maybe it should go because you need to prioritize yourself that's like the nugget of wisdom I'd give
to myself a year ago that I think I knew and I just didn't trust myself enough to know it so yeah
trust yourself too that's also what I'd say number two what are two of the coolest things you've done
in the last year so I'm only gonna be able to use this this year so I'm gonna use it is one I
started grad school and two I moved to another country I feel like the grad school one is a
little bit of a cop-out because I got accepted to grad school when I was 25 I started when I was 26
so like there's that but I would say like moving to a new country slash starting grad school are
kind of like all in a bundle because that's why I moved to England if you didn't know and you've
been watching my channel for a while I don't know how you missed that piece of information but I am
going to grad school in London England so like if I was going to grad school I was moving to
England type of thing so we'll wrap that into one the second one would be going to Holland for the
first time and like when I actually actually went to Holland because I had a layover there and I got
to see my aunt my cousin when I first moved here but over spring break I got to spend like a week
in Holland and go to the place that I had heard stories about and seen in pictures my whole life
where all my family is from and I got to meet cousins I had never met except through photos or
FaceTime so um yeah moving slash grad school and going to Holland for the first time number three
what is something that brings you simple joy right now I have two things that bring me simple joy
right now one is Hidden Valley Ranch I'm putting a picture on here because I don't want to go into
the kitchen and get my big old bottle of ranch but I order Ranch because you cannot get that
in this country I order ranch dressing from Amazon I pay like probably triple the price that I would
if I bought it in a Walmart in the States but like being able to like make my pizzas and have
ranch with it or like make a salad with ranch and when you just cannot buy ranch dressing in this
country like that makes me happy it is just the one little piece of like home in normalcy also I
love ranch dressing I love it so much but it's the one piece of home that I make sure I have because
am I paying like a lot for like I'm paying like 13 pounds for like a big old bottle of it which
is insane I'd probably pay like five bucks in the states for that but when I like make my pizza and
I pour myself a whole bunch of ranch to dip my pizza in it just makes me happy and it makes me
feel like I have that it just feels normal again so I love me some ranch secondly is juggling I
learned to just struggles I don't even know how long ago now I was learning how to juggle because
I was a nanny at one point in time and I just decided I wanted to learn how to juggle and the
kid I was watching thought it was hilarious when I was trying to juggle because I would
use his blocks and so I bought these like actual juggling balls which is the first time I've had
juggling balls I've always used like tennis balls or t-balls or whatever but these are like bean bag
ones so if I drop it it doesn't like roll anywhere they're also a really good weight I've been trying
to get like my goal for years has been to be able to juggle with four balls and so I'm trying
to get better at that get better at my single hand juggling but I've been taking these like
to school with me almost like every day and on breaks I'll sit there and juggle and just try to
get better I'll juggle for like 15 minutes before bed and like work up a sweat so juggling and these
juggling balls in particular if you're curious what they are they are the spievers juggling balls
in there great and it makes me happy to juggle can anybody frown with while juggling is that possible
I don't feel like it is foreign okay number four what is something that you are proud of right now
okay there's um I'm so proud of the YouTube community that I've built because of my community
I was able to raise 200 for Ukraine relief through just YouTube AdSense and patreon and then
we raised an additional I believe it was 50 on Instagram through my I did like a little donation
thing on there so 250 for Ukraine relief to go to two Charities UNICEF and Global giving I love
making YouTube videos because I love the whole process of filming I love editing I love talking
about tech and like sharing that passion with the internet I like talking about my life like I just
I really love making YouTube videos I've been doing it for like a decade now and I love it so
much but I think the thing that I'm most proud of is the fact that I've built this community that
wants to do something positive for the world and when I first pitched the idea of doing something
like raising money for different charities every month or even for this Ukraine relief thing that
I did for like three months my entire Channel anybody who like saw that I was pursuing this
was like all on board and wanted to know in what ways they could help and if it wasn't for
this community that I've built over the years we wouldn't have been able to raise that much money
so yeah that like I remember donating the money after it got deposited in my bank account from
YouTube and stuff and just like trying not to cry because it just it's really cool that this thing
that I've built on YouTube was able to actually make like a positive impact in the world so yeah
my Ukraine fundraiser that I did at the beginning of this calendar year is something I am like one
of the things I'm the most proud of number five what is your favorite album right now I'm gonna
choose oh I just thought of a third one okay I'm gonna choose three because that's such a hard
question why did I give myself this hard question first of all Nick Jonas's Spaceman I didn't even
know that album came out when I saw it and it had been out for like months and I was like hey
Nick Jonas in team do a better job at marketing your album because one it goes off like if you
liked the first Nick Jonas album It's called Nick Jonas I believe this one is the entire album is
just like I can't think of a bad song off the top of my head the album's Fantastic if you haven't
listened to it yet 100 out of 10 would recommend secondly and this is not a joke and I'm serious
when I say this Gabriel gundacher he used to be on Vine he made this album called The Unofficial
Wii Sports album or The Unofficial Wii Sports soundtrack I think it's called it is I think
I think it was my second or first most listened to album in 2021 essentially what this guy did
Gabriel gundecker is he made all these videos where he made a joke of just being like people
ask me all the time hey Gabe if we win surfing was a sport what would the soundtrack sound like so he
has like we jogging we win surfing we croquet we chess and all the music is so peaceful but like
a b and like whenever I'm stressed out I just listen to it I'll just listen to it when I'm
doing work or just like walking it's such good vibes and like the Wii Sports and all the Wii
music go so hard if you haven't listened to it I'm pretty sure it's on all streaming platforms
listen to it it's amazing I just really enjoy it there's no words it's just good ambient music and
then the third album is by AJR and it's called called OK Orchestra it's their newest album and
it's just also fantastic I haven't really listened to their music before except like their few like
radio hits but I've listened to this entire album and I love it so yeah number six what is the best
book you've read in the last year because I'm a reader now I could actually tell you oh I'm
gonna oh it's a toss-up it's a toss-up okay I'm gonna say so it's a toss-up between these
two books a deadly education by Naomi novik and John Green's the anthropocene reviewed good God
that is it the anthropocene reviewed they're both completely different books this is a
a book of essays yeah essays on a human-centered planet John Green wrote The Fault in Our Stars
Looking for Alaska Turtles all the way down it is almost borderline a memoir but not and I read
this almost through the entirety of when I had covid and it was just something that was really
grounding and made me feel like a person and has moments where you laugh has moments where
you learn things I think John Green is an amazing writer I love the vlogbrothers so this and then
for a different change of pace and I just this has like the most gut-wrenching last line of the book
and you just like get I've talked about this and I made a freaking Instagram reel about this book
because I love it so much deadly education what I like to say to people is it's like Harry Potter if
Hogwarts was trying to kill the students that's what I'm gonna say It's Magic it's crazy it's
insane it's fight to the death Harry Potter it's like if it was the Goblet of Fire all
the time except Hogwarts the actual school like not the institution the physical building was
trying to kill all the students and it's just great and it's awesome I'm just gonna leave
it there I also read the second one um the last graduate which was also fantastic but number one
beautiful number seven what is something you're grateful for right now this is gonna sound really
cheesy but I'm so grateful for my friends grateful for my friends in a way that like obviously as you
get older you meet new people your friendships mature whatever the friends I have right now
whether they be the ones here in England or the ones back home in America are just some of the
best people I've ever met I have such genuine friendships all of these people so genuinely
care about me and I think I I've just I've never felt more supported by my friends than I do in
this point in my life right now so authentically without caveats like supported and loved and
there's something so powerful to feel like you have this backbone is the wrong word to feel
like you have this like just this Foundation this support system of just authentic amazing
funny witty different unique like all these people in my life I have my core friend group here who I
am just so grateful for because moving to a new country and not knowing anybody and then finding
people that you just click with and just feels like you've known them forever and like I wouldn't
get through some days here if it weren't for these people so I'm just so grateful for my friends here
and then when you move countries or when you go through hard times you learn who your real
friends are and I would say some friendships have even gotten stronger since me leaving
which my concern was that things would go in the opposite direction and that I would lose friends
because they didn't want to put in the effort of figuring out the time zone change and and whatever
and knowing that I would be in grad school so I wouldn't be as available to have FaceTime calls
or whatever but like people working to schedule things with me like texting people at weird hours
and them getting back to me at weird hours and we just kind of make the weird hours work and
I'm just yeah I'm really grateful for my friends number eight what is a country you would love to
visit okay right now okay so something that has been on my list since I was a kid is Greece and
and like a month from you Greece and I
wait I feel like that's a little bit of a like a like a cheat answer because of the fact that I
know I'm going soon but that's always been one of the places that I have loved to visit since I was
a kid I've been obsessed with like Greek mythology and like the ancient civilizations so I've always
wanted to go to like Rome Egypt Greece like those three places but the fact that I get a cross I got
one off my list very soon I'm very excited for if I had to pick another one I would say Switzerland
or Scotland yeah let's see if next year I'll have crossed any more of those off my list
that's exciting okay number nine how do you define your style in three words
practical eclectic colorful number 10 what's a motto you live by oh
a motto I live by because I was gonna say one that I always say I would say like is like the motto
I live by is live your best life nobody else is going to do it for you author unknown I don't know
where that came from I don't know but that's just something I've said for a really long time but
another quote that is I would say also a motto is every day is a you day and that's by Pete Holmes
one of my favorite comedians my favorite comedian of all time but yeah that's been my that's been
the motto 11. what are three goals for the next year so I'm gonna say like my birthday year three
goals one is more like vain but I don't care I'm gonna say it anyway first goal would be to hit 5
000 subscribers I am almost at 3 500 as of right now and that would just be freaking fantastic if
by next year's birthday I hit 5 000 subscribers so that's goal number one goal number two is to
get both of my splits back I used to be able to do the splits and when I work on them I get
better at the splits but get both of my splits back so like each like each leg you know forward
and stuff and like in a perfect world adding the middle splits in there but I mainly want my
forward and backward splits again it's been my goal for so long so yeah I'm gonna like I
feel like that's appropriate goal to say um to be able to juggle with four balls that's
not that's not like a big life goal that's not like insane but that is something that I
want to do because I think that it's sick as heck I love the reaction when I start
juggling because people are just like what and imagine if I could do that with four things how
so hit 5000 subscribers get both of my splits back and be able to juggle with four objects balls
12. what do you want to say to yourself in a year oh these are hard man I came up with hard
questions what do I want to say to myself in a year I feel like I'm starting the Time Capsule
for future on at least so here it is Boop start recording hi 2023 on Elise I hope you're thriving
because after the last couple of years that you've had look where you are now you just graduated grad
school and although the journey was not easy and there were a lot of ups and downs it is still an
insane accomplishment that you cannot let anybody take away from you and I think something I want
you to do is think about where you are now how you got here how much you've grown how much you've let
go of how much ownership you've taken over your life and your own happiness and remember that
you can always do that and lastly number 13. in three words describe your life adventurous
busy and I don't know if you could it's the gratitude a descriptive word grateful my life
is grateful that doesn't make sense I'm gonna allow it I'm gonna allow it because I know
what I'm trying to phrase it as in my head so like three words to pick to describe about my
life or how I feel about it or whatever is I already forgot adventurous busy and gratitude
or gratefulness whatever would be grammatically correct that's what I'm choosing and with that my
first year of my same interview different year is done I think this is gonna be so fun to not only
look back on but like see how my answers change like I think that's the thing I'm most looking
forward to is looking back at like year three or year four but then also seeing what I said
last year because I'm not gonna watch this video obviously I'm gonna edit it but then once I post
it I'm not watching it again until I film this video so we'll see if I remember what I said but
um I think this is fun it's not my birthday yet I'm filming this like two weeks before my birthday
but I felt like a really good way to kind of like reflect on the last year of my life like birthday
wise my year my calendar year and I enjoyed it and I hope you enjoyed hearing about how my last
year went or how I feel about my life right now or whatever and if you want to do the same thing for
you whether it's a journal prompt whether it's a video for yourself I will leave all the questions
that I have in the description down below right below the like button so feel free to check that
out copy and paste it and do whatever your heart desires with it thank you so much for watching
and if you're somebody who's been with me since my last birthday thank you so much for sticking
around with my channel it's been a really insane year obviously I've moved countries started grad
school had a whole bunch of life changes and my YouTube channel has been the one constant thing
in this past year like this last month things get hard with school and I have to focus on school
and not on my YouTube channel as much but it's always nice to know that I have my YouTube channel
um as like that one concert in my life that's always there and a wonderful community behind
it so thank you so much for being a part of that community and if you are not
subscribed to this channel yet please consider subscribing if you want to give
me a birthday gift subscribe to my channel and tell your friends about my channel maybe they
like tech content maybe they like content about a person who's in their late 20s oh I
don't want to think about that oh I hated that I just said that out loud oh my God
but before I go of course I have to take a brief moment to thank all of my Patreon supporters these
are my top tier patrons I have tiers from one dollar to ten I post life updates on there I post
updates about the channel I'm trying to post more behind the scenes videos videos that never saw
the light of day so if you want to be a part of that see any of that stuff that's on the Patreon
or just help support this channel in a monetary way you can go to patreon.com/annelies and pick
any of my Tears the five and ten dollar tiers are the ones that get your names permanently tattooed
on all my videos so if that sounds interesting to you you can check that out but thank you so much
to all of my patrons of past present and future and thank you so very much to my talk to your
patrons and uh that's gonna be it for me thank you so much for watching stay beautiful have a
marvelous day and I will see y'all in the next one bye look at this I my nails match the shirt
Apple watch band is like almost a perfect match I don't know if I'm gonna be wearing this on my
actual birthday but now I'm kind of considering it anywhoozle okay see you in the next one bye