Solo'd months ago; felt like a pilot today

I solo'd back in December, but it didn't feel fanfare worthy, so I didn't make a post like many others do. My Solo XC Phase Check is tomorrow, but I went out today to "cheat" and pre-time my first waypoint in the plan. I fly in complicated, crowded 1x Bravo, 2x Charlie, 1x Federal land on the west coast, so climb-out to my first waypoint is 2-3 steps and there's no clear "TOC" to scrawl on my plan/log. My CFI suggested to plan and calculate a TOC at my planned cruising altitude for fuel usage purposes, but not include it in the timed checkpoints. So as I thought about it last night, I figured the easiest thing to do would be to just go test it out. So I just bopped down to the airport, grabbed a plane, ran my "errand" and came back. I had time on the rental when I came back and there was a crosswind, so I did several loops in the pattern when I came back. One of the loops, tower had me extend upwind, extend downwind, do a 360 for spacing, "slow as practical on final for more spacing", get in some s-turns for more spacing. None of these things really phased me. "Sure, standard rate right turn." "Sure, I'll configure for slow flight early." "Sure, I'll fly s-turns in slow flight on a well controlled descent." I ended up a bit high, slipped to landing, greased it, still off at the first exit. Another loop, I was super pleased with my aiming and speed control and kinda zoned out, flared too aggressively as a result, and went around as more of an instinct than conscious thought. But before any of those, I couldn't figure out why my whiteboard-marker-dot made me sink so much, so I just stopped using it. It wasn't until I got the plane parked and reset the seat height to the top that I realized I'd counted 5 crank turns from the bottom instead of the top, so I spent the whole day sitting lower than usual and I still flew fine. So, I think the biggest thing that made me feel like a pilot is that mistakes and complexity just didn't make me flustered or hit mental saturation. And on top of all of that, weather + family vacation meant I hadn't been in the plane for 2 weeks. There's really nothing like graceful recovery from mistakes to boost your confidence. Cheers ya'll, keep the blue side up.