Season 1 Finale: Entering a New Chapter — Birthday Reflections, Life Lessons & What's Next

As my birthday approaches, I'm closing out Season 1 with a moment of reflection. In this season finale, I'm looking back on the last year of my life—the lessons, challenges, growth, setbacks, and unexpected moments that shaped me into who I am today.

From personal development and wellness to faith, relationships, career goals, and learning to trust the timing of my life, this year taught me more than I ever expected. I'm sharing what I'm leaving behind, what I'm taking with me, and what I'm most excited to step into as I enter a new chapter.

Whether you're celebrating a birthday, navigating a life transition, or reflecting on your own journey, I hope this conversation reminds you how much growth can happen in a year.

Thank you for being part of Season 1. Here's to new beginnings, continued growth, and the chapters still waiting to be written. ✨

Thanks so much for listening! If this episode resonated with you, make sure to subscribe and leave a review. New episodes drop every Tuesday morning, and you can follow me on Instagram @Stephanie_Monge to stay connected and come along for the journey.

Transcript

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So we're doing things a little bit different today. I do not have an outline for this episode at all, just an idea. So we're gonna see how this goes because I feel like sometimes when I do outlines, it's harder for me to be as authentic. I don't know how to explain. I feel like it lands differently. But also, today's episode is just a little bit more personal, and I don't really know where I want to go with it. So, also for that reason. On today's episode, we're gonna be kind of just reflecting on the last year of my life. My birthday is on Monday, the 18th. It's currently the 14th right now. So I've just been really reflecting a lot on this last year. It's been so much change in my life, and yeah, I didn't want to feel confined to talk about anything specific when doing this because this is kind of to help me process too. It's been a really amazing year, and I'm so excited for this next year of my life. I'm turning 27, which at first sounded so scary to me. I don't know why 27 just sounded so different from 26. I don't know. I feel like you're like beginning 20s, like after you turn 21, it's like 22, 23, 24, whatever, like all the same thing, 25. You're still young 20s. But 26 kind of still felt like your mid-20s. 27 to me just sounds like, oh, you're like in your older 20s, which doesn't matter, but just like something that I think of. I don't know. I'm just like, wow, like I'm like getting older. Like this is crazy. Like I've lived so much life and I'm so grateful for it. And just yeah, processing it all and and so much beauty. So the 26th year of my life, I think about where I was a year ago in May. I had just started at Body Well in February. So we were three months in, and what a journey that has been. And I'm so grateful for this opportunity that I've had. If you haven't tuned in before, I am a medical aesthetician, and Body Well is just this beautiful longevity, anti-aging wellness space that we've created in Miami Beach, and we're just really proud of it, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. So it's just so cool that it was just such the beginning stages. We are still building out the facial department, do the facials, lashes, and brows there. So yeah, just like such an exciting time for me. And then I had also just started my yoga teacher training program in March. So I think I was preparing to do the final around this time because I think the final would have been like next week, this time last year. I think I took my final on the 23rd, so it was crunch time, and that was such an intense and beautiful experience. There was so much growth around that time. I did it with my best friend Sydney. So we were spending so much time together. She was over my house, like living at my house every weekend for like two months. And I met so many beautiful people that I'm so grateful to know now and call a friend now. And that really, I don't know, helped my sense of community and family in my adult life, I guess. Like I have so much love for the people and relationships I made during that time and a couple opportunities that landed through it as well, which is so amazing to think about. So yeah, that was that was intense. Around this time last year, it was also kind of heavy because, well, since I had started a new job, just I remember being pretty stressed around that time just financially, because there was like a couple week period where I did not have a job at all. And Body Well had just begun. I was their first employee. I ended up being with them on the first day that they were even open. It was such a crazy alignment and just so many beautiful signs from God that I was where I was meant to be. Yeah, so so much beauty, but so like so much contrast to it too, and so much hard work around that time. We were also dealing with a family member that had cancer that ended up passing away the 23rd uh last year. So that was I remember that being very heavy around this time. So it was just a really, really intense time this time last year of so much beauty, but so much depth and life processing experiences, new experiences. Yeah, just like so much life in general. It was it was really intense. Yeah, I'm really grateful for it. And and since around that time, I've started doing yoga and sound healing, teaching sound healing, really realizing how much I love doing that. Started teaching and then stopped teaching. I kind of realized that what I like out of yoga is the relaxation meditative part of it, and which is why I really like sound and which is why I did my yin. So maybe in the future I'll be open to doing yin yoga. But now I signed up for my Pilates, so I'm really excited about that. But it's so grateful that I started with yoga because I feel like yoga is very foundational and it considers the lifestyle because a lot of people don't know, but there's actually seven limbs of yoga and movement, which is asana, is only one of them. So there's six others. Another one of them is pranayama, which is breath work. There's so much part of it that's, you know, spiritual and it was just very beautiful in general. And I think I'm glad that I started there. I also am very glad that I started there because I think yoga really helped me understand my body posture. My chiropractor told me at the age, the ripe age of 20, I think I was 25, that I was too young for my back to look like that. My back was literally deteriorating. The discs in between my spinal bones were really wearing down. So my posture was awful, awful, awful. And this year I'm really understanding like how I'm actually supposed to like stand in alignment. I feel like I would just be around my house, like washing the dishes, like with my body curved for no reason. Or like, I don't know, I just would always have my spine out of alignment, literally for no reason. Like I was just making everything harder for myself. I don't know where I got that from. But I'm really working on that this year. So very grateful that I started with yoga also for that, because I don't know, I feel like, I mean, I don't know because I haven't done the Pilates teacher training program, but I feel like yoga really actually no, I do feel like Pilates is really concentrated on alignment too. But I don't know, just like being able to sit in alignment and like stay in one place in alignment, like just so much. I feel like yoga was really good for me in that way too. So that now when I do Pilates, I already understand what it looks like and feels like in my body. My spine was just really bad. It was much harder for me. So I feel like it's better for just my body in general not to deteriorate. Oh my god, sounds so bad. But yeah, very grateful that I learned that from yoga too. And then what else? Oh, my boyfriend moved in with me again, which is crazy and yeah, so amazing. I was living with a roommate for like two years, and yeah, I'm just really happy to be living together again. We lived together for a while, actually, but we broke up for like a year and yeah, we just started dating again in our adult life and just so many beautiful things there. And our apartment now we also have our own rooms, which is so nice, which I highly recommend. I don't know, I feel like it's so much better because we both can be like messy in our own ways in our own space. Like, if you can do that, I really think it's nice, but like I don't know, I've really liked that because before we were always in the same room, and yeah, I think this is really nice. And you know, I have office space, so I can work from here. So just I've fallen in love with my home and just yeah, my relationship has been better than ever. So, like, that's such an interesting topic, too, that I would love to get into because dating someone from teenage is just so interesting, and growing together and evolving together and figuring out what we want from life, and are we in the same life stages? And yeah, all of that so beautiful. So, yeah, what else? I'm trying to think. There's just so much, and I feel like lately I've also just been seeing so many angel numbers, like it's actually insane. And oh, I was gonna say, so going back to the 27, at first I was like, that sounded so scary, but then I realized one of my angel numbers is also 227. 227 was the address of the house I grew up in from like when I was one to like I was 18. And I didn't really have an attachment to the number until like five years after we moved out of it. We no longer have that house, and the number started popping up more and more. And I remember also my email when I was little was my email when I was little was superstars 227. So I like always had that whatever. Yeah, and it just started popping up in like times and like license plates and things, and I'm like, so interesting. And then when I looked at the meeting, it was so beautiful and resonated so much with me that it's kind of stuck with me. And lately I've been seeing that like crazy, I've been seeing a lot of like 11-11. I looked at my aura score this morning and it said I fell asleep at 12-12. Like, I'm like, this is like actually crazy. So yeah, I've just been seeing so many angel numbers and just reflecting a lot. And yeah, it just feels like a new chapter of my life, and I'm really excited for it. Trying to think what has been the biggest lesson that I've learned this past year. I'm gonna reflect on that. I think the biggest lesson that I've learned in this last year is to practice presence. I feel like that has stuck out for me more and more. And oh, also, I didn't mention either. If you've listened to my last couple episodes, I did an episode talking about the Bible and how I've started reading that. So that's also been a huge part of this past year for me too. It was a really divine experience. I'll share like a quick snippet of my testimony for that as well. It is in that episode as well. So if you want a longer version, you can listen to that episode. But on the day that my cousin had passed away, which was the 23rd, I think, no, it was the 24th. So he passed away on the 24th last year, 2025. So on the day that he passed, my dad had gone to the bookstore and picked up some new books, and we got to sitting down because I love stationery. My dad is very religious, so he had gotten things to help him with journaling after reading the Bible and things like that. So we got to talking about the Bible. I showed him my Bible, and there was a bookmark that I had had in my Bible that someone had given to me that I had left in there for like a year, and it was my cousin that had passed away. It was his favorite scripture, which is Jeremiah 29, 11. And my brother had just got it tattooed on his arm that day. So it was just really beautiful, and me and my dad just sat down with the Bible for a little bit, and he showed me how to read it and where he recommended that I start. So I started reading the Bible, and it took me a little bit to kind of get a hang of because it's obviously a very complex book, and where to start getting the hang of what makes sense for me in terms of how I process it the best. I had to kind of experiment with it. So I'm still getting the hang of it, but I'm almost a year in now, and that's crazy to think about. So yeah, and that now that I say it out loud has probably what has shown me the most to just be present and appreciate life. Life has so many beautiful aspects, even in so many hard situations that are confusing. Everyone experiences the conflicting contrasts that life has to offer. And it really is so complex. But if you choose to see the beauty, there's so much deep beauty in all of it. And I think just the morals and values of the lessons from the Bible in general, of how to be a good person, to be kind and to be slow to anger and have appreciation for the simple things in life. And I don't know, it's just really taught me to slow down too. And that's such a beautiful part of what I'm trying to do. I feel like I'm for the most part a very fast-paced. I don't know if I would say, like, yeah, I would probably say fast-paced person. And I don't know if intense is the right word because I don't know why it's it has like I have a negative connotation to that, but maybe I should reflect on that later. Yeah, I do feel like with people in my life, like just like in general, yeah, I do think that sometimes I can be an intense person and like I'm just comfortable with the people in my life, and that's such a blessing in of itself. So sometimes they like experience that, but yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I just think that life can be really intense. So of course, I'm very blessed, and I think it's good to take a moment for this too. I'm very blessed to be surrounded with really good people, and I never want to take that for granted. Yeah, I'm I'm blessed with people around me that want the best for me, I can communicate with, and that we have mutual respect for each other, we can be vulnerable, and I do recognize too that I think a lot of that can come from me showing up like that too. I want to always be as authentic and I don't know, just like a good friend. I really pride myself on being a good friend. So I think that that also attracts people that are like that too. And I'm very grateful for that because I have so much love in my life, and I feel very, very blessed to say that. I think also lately I've been reflecting a lot on just putting more of myself out there in general. If you don't know, I've been creating content for a while. I feel like I've been dabbling with it. I've just never really been consistent. I feel like lately I've been more consistent. Obviously, more consistency means more sharing of my life, and that's been its own roller coaster in of itself, too. Because I mean, yeah, it's just a lot of invitation for more outside noise. And I think it's kind of complicated to find a happy medium in that. Yeah, I don't know. It's it's very, it's a very vulnerable thing and uncomfortable thing, finding a balance of what I do share, what I don't share. Like, this has probably been the most vulnerable episode I've done. So I really do hope it'll as well. But yeah, I just wanted, especially like I said, I think just in the place in my life. And I always want to speak from a place in my life, but I just get scared that maybe something like this would be like boring for people too. Like, if I don't know, like it's so personal. But I don't know. I crave this from other creators, so I thought, why not give it a shot? And yeah, just closing the last chapter of my life and wanting to step into this next chapter of my life. I think this is how I want to show up, and I'm sure that it's gonna be trial and error of what I want to keep in. I don't even know what I'll keep in, if I'll keep in everything from this episode, but I want to explore the energy of doing it and just letting it flow. Because, like I said, I mean, I think that outlines could be, now I'm talking about the podcast, but hey, you're here, so let's talk about it. I think the podcast, when it needs to be more educational, I think it's necessary for me to have an outline. But other than that, if I'm trying to reflect or be personal and, you know, coming from this space that I kind of set out for the intention for this podcast to be, I think it's good for me to just have an idea and kind of let it flow. The only difficult part about that is obviously I need it to be long enough. So I do need to let myself flow. So it's like, you know, do I reflecting on what do I need to take anything out? But we'll see. I need to listen back to this. But it definitely is a little bit scary. Let me see what time we're at. So I can see if it's long enough. Okay, I need like another 10 minutes of talking. So hey guys. Okay, I'm trying to think of what else this last year has taught me. Okay, this last year has definitely taught me so much ambition in my career and what it takes to really follow my dreams. It can be so uncomfortable because I'm really just following my passions and like, you know, obviously I have to think about finances too. So that plays a factor. Finding the balance in that, but then also carving out the time when I can to pour into other things that, you know, aren't, let's say, as worth my time right now. Let's say, for example, the podcast, like, I haven't made any money off the podcast, and it obviously is very time consuming. I have to talk for like 30 minutes, but then each episode to edit that probably is like, I don't know, maybe five hours to publish like from beginning to end. So yeah, I need a lot of time for it, but I really do love it and I think it is resonating well when I talk to people that have listened to it. They appreciate it. So it's something that I want to keep doing because even if it's just helping one person or making one person feel less alone or whatnot, I want that. And I love just vulnerability and connection in general. Like connection has been such a huge word in the past couple years of my life. Like that is all I want out of life. Connection to myself, connection to God, connection to people, connection to nature. Yeah, so this is a beautiful way for me to connect to that in general. So I I want to keep pouring into it. Yeah, if anyone's here, thank you for listening. I can't believe I started this podcast also in the last year. I don't even didn't even say that. Yeah, so I started this podcast, oh my god, in like November or December of last year, 2025. So it's been six months now, which is also crazy. And I haven't missed a week. So what I did was I pre-batched a month's worth of recordings and finalized things that just needed to literally be uploaded and put a description. So I set myself up for success because a lot of podcasts, it's hard to build that consistency. So after like the third episode, a lot of people lose motivation. So I batched the four, and that way it would also be a little bit easier to kind of get used to and find my flow. Like if you have been listening, you know that I've been wanting to do video, which I also have not done yet. The first episode I did, I started to in mid-recording, I realized, oh my god, my camera died. So that went to trash. I just haven't gotten around to it because, like I said, I'm trying to see how it fits into my life. But yeah, started November. I think I launched actually on Issa's birthday, so February 4th. It's been live for four months now, which is so cool. I think I'm on like episode 18, which wait, is it? Oh my god, that's another angel number. Oh my god, my birthday's the 18th. That's why I say this. Oh my god, that's so crazy. We've been live for months. Grateful to be here. I will say I love it and so happy to have it. Like, this is such a blessing that you know I figured out how to do it and I have the time to do it and all of that. I do think I've been lacking in promo for the podcast, which is not hard. I just need to carve out the time for it to just do one shoot that will last me a while. Like, okay, the whole idea for the podcast also was so, like I said, I've been doing social media like seven years, but not consistent at all. But I've always liked doing it. And when I was in college, I was doing Monet, which was selling hairs, like Mary Kay kind of vibe, but for hair. And so that really got me comfortable in front of the camera. But yeah, I've just always struggled with consistency because it's never been a full-time gig. Now I have a little bit more flexibility where I can pour a little bit more time into it. And so the whole idea with the podcast is oh, I'll record every episode that way. I have content to be consistent on my socials. And I haven't recorded any. So we'll get around to it. That's definitely on my to-do list for this next chapter. I would definitely like to figure that out and all the logistics of that. But I had also had to play around a while to see what worked for editing because at first I was using iMovie, and if you know, you just know it's just I couldn't. It would take me probably double that time, 10 or 11 hours. So it was just not realistic. So now I'm using Final Clock Pro, and that has helped so much. And yeah, this last year I've also been really consistent, which I'm so proud of myself for. I feel like I've posted more than ever on all of my platforms, really, besides maybe YouTube. But I think these podcasts go on YouTube too, so that's great. But yeah, I just need to do the video because obviously video adds so much help. And anyways, I went on a tangent for that. I've just been so consistent in the last year of my life, and I'm really proud of myself for that. Anyways, I feel like that's the most of the reflection for this last year. Now let's switch it up to what I'm looking forward to in this next chapter. This next chapter is gonna begin with, let's think. I feel like the first thing that comes to mind and what I'm most excited for this next chapter is just me and my partner. I feel like we're at a really good place, and I'm just, I don't know, there's so much exciting things to look forward to in life that I need to do a whole other episode on relationships in general. I'm really excited for that, for everything with my partner and just traveling more and getting to live more life together. And then from there, I think this Pilates teacher training program, like I really do love doing events. I also started doing more stuff in that aspect this last year. Like, I had never really done events and I did an event speaking on nutrition, I did a yoga event, I did a sound event. So I've I've dabbled more in that and really getting comfortable in that space and exploring that avenue. So I'm really excited to do Pilates because I would love teaching Pilates more for events. I feel like it just matches the high energy more. That's in July, it starts in July, I believe. Yeah, I think that's gonna offer a lot for me. And then doing the video for the podcast and just rolling out more content. Hopefully, having someone to hire for a little bit to help me with some content. So it really is like a lot of work, especially because it's like I have so much other things that I want to pour into. Like I can't fully pour into this. So I think it would be really wise of me to have someone to help me. Oh, and this last year too, I found out that I had PMDD, which is a hormonal disorder that really affects your mental health. And I didn't know that I had it. So that also taught me a lot too. I feel like I've never been more understanding of my body and knowing what it needs, and like just being able to be intuitive. And so that's been a huge blessing. So it's been like a year since I got it, which yeah, I've I've made so much improvement in that area, and I'm also so proud of myself for that. I'm able to be very intuitive. I understand my body more, and I'm just like feeling proud to be a woman. I feel like when you're out of alignment with your hormones, you like almost shame yourself. And why is it so complicated? But like these were the cards that you were dealt, and it's such a beautiful thing to be a woman, and our bodies can literally make humans. I was talking to an old friend yesterday, and she was saying that analogy, like, like, I just can't believe there's like a human in my body, and like I'm gonna like, I'm growing it. Like, I'm already a mother because my baby's literally in my womb. Like, it's just such a blessing. Like, how cool is that? I want to be more in awe of my body and appreciating it and trying to understand it, even though it can be complicated sometimes. So I feel really good about that, about like womanhood. I don't really think I've processed that. When I can be more alignment with myself, I can also show up better for people around me and just all the aspects in my life. Not only that, but also I feel like so much of what the different aspects of my career right now, they're all so centered in wellness that when I can show up the best for myself, I lead by example, you know. Just continue to learn. I have so many interests. Like I want to continue to learn about the chakras and I wanna continue to read the Bible. And I just started reading the Alcoholics Anonymous book. I've always been really interested in sobriety and just the whole program, I think is really beautiful, and just also the morals and values of all of that. So I recently started it. I just finished like the intro and like the beginning parts of it, and now I'm just reached chapter one, which is called Bill's Story, and it's very intense and beautiful. And yeah, so making my way through that, and I think that will be really great for me. Someone inspired me when I was doing yin yoga training. One day I was talking to a friend, and she has been sober for a while. We were just talking about really life. It was a beautiful conversation, and she said to me that if everybody in the world read the Bible and the AA book and the principles and morals from both of them, that the world would be such a better place. And how can you not after you hear that? So I am starting to read that one too, which I'm really excited for. And I also want to make my way through all my nutrition. Oh my god, so many books. I need to make more time to read. Whenever I start thinking about this, it really stresses me out. That's something that I really need to get to. I need to get to actually carving out time in my calendar. Anyways, okay, we're done here. I'm gonna leave it with that. If you read the Bible and the AA book, because I think that's so beautiful. Thank you guys so much for listening today. I hope that this episode lands well. If you are a friend of mine and you stay till the end, I love you so much. And can you please text me and let me know what you think about this episode? Thank you so much. This is Bareface and Becoming. I post these episodes every Friday morning. So I hope to talk to you again if you want to connect on social media. My Instagram is Stephanie underscore Mongi. Manji's M O N G E. My TikTok, I believe, is my first and last name with an extra E at the end. But if you go to my Instagram, all my links are in my bio. So you can find anything there. If you made it to the end, leave a little angel wing on one of my posts. And I love you so much. Thank you so much for being here. I'll talk to you next week. Oh my god, now it'll be 27 next time we talk. Okay. Love you. Bye.