30.

A bit of a theme going on here...

The big day has come and gone, and while I didn't have any qualms about the event in itself, I have to say that I am probably feeling the most thirty that anyone has ever felt right at this moment. Were it not for a five-month-old who has been severely sleep challenged for the past month, I don't think this would be true. But if the stereotypical difference between being in ones twenties and being in ones thirties is having less energy, well, then label me up, because I 100% fit that stereotype. 

Aside from the tiredness factor, which I know has more to do with being a parent than anything else, there's not really anything about turning thirty that has caused me any kind of anxiety. It feels less like a black cloud hanging over me and more like an exciting milestone that I think I have actually been looking forward to for a while now.

In fact, I think I've always been a little bit thirty. Again, I'm stereotyping like crazy here (age ain't nothing but a number, after all), but I was just never that into all of the things that a person is "supposed" to be into during their twenties. I mean, I had a good time. I went out. I did stuff. I stayed up late. You know. But I always found that too much of the wild life just never felt natural to me. If being thirty means choosing Netflix over night clubs and meeting up for coffee instead of cocktails, well then I've been living the good life for quite some time now.

That being said, such a momentous birthday does encourage one to reflect and, looking back, I have to say that my twenties were pretty damn amazing. I celebrated my twentieth at my beloved University of Michigan and when I was twenty one I took a chance on a job opportunity at a summer camp (thank you forever for that suggestion, Boo) and my whole life changed. Several countries, a master's degree, the greatest love, and one chubby little cherub later and I am somewhere that I could never in a million years have predicted I would be. 

But isn't that what makes life so wonderful?

And if that is what ten years can do then I have only the greatest excitement and anticipation about what the next decade is going to bring. 

Cheers for all of the birthday love, everyone, and cheers to 30 years!

- A -