The author and her daughter on New Year’s Eve 2024.

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Thirty-Five Days Until Fifty-Five

At 7 am on January 1, 2025, my first miracle of the year had already occurred.

Robin Finn
3 min readJan 1, 2025

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Today is New Year’s Day 2025. In 35 days, I will be 55. If I had thought about this ahead of time — which I did not — I would have chosen to write for the last 55 days before turning 55. I like the symmetry. But I thought about this project today and I believe it was Mel Robbins who said you better act on an idea within 5 seconds of having it so, in 5 seconds, I decided to write every day for the next 35 days until my birthday — symmetry be damned.

I woke up at 6 am this morning and saw that my twenty-four-year old daughter was not at home. No text. No phone call. Not like her. I checked Find My Friends. It indicated that she was by a freeway exit eight minutes away. I called her phone three times, texted twice, woke my husband, threw on jeans and Birkenstocks, and drove over to the freeway exit, trying not to panic.

The last time I saw her was the night before. She was dressed up and going to meet a friend at a New Year’s Eve party. On the way to the freeway exit, I found the phone number of the friend and called his cel phone. No answer. We got off the exit and I tried calling again. No answer. We circled around and I tried the friend’s phone for the third time. He answered right away and put my daughter…

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Sleepless in the San Fernando Valley
Sleepless in the San Fernando Valley

Published in Sleepless in the San Fernando Valley

By Robin Finn — She’s sweaty. She has to pee. She’s got 3 young adults. No wonder she can’t sleep.(Photo: Steven Pahel/Unsplash)

Robin Finn
Robin Finn

Written by Robin Finn

Author & founder of Heart. Soul. Pen.® for women writers & novel: Restless in L.A. Essayist: @NYTimes @WashPo @LATimes. Narrative alchemist. www.robinfinn.com

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