Thoughts

Goodbye to my 30s…

Chris & Misti @ Thunder Falls
Last day of 29…

Untitled
Lady day of 39…

My 30s were a ride. The first four years went smoothly enough but the next several were a rollercoaster. Having a kid and changing your life will do that, I suppose. I know that when I turned 30 everything seemed wide open for the decade. After having a rather adventurous 20s, from graduating college and moving to Florida and spending most of that time soaking in everything the state had to offer, my 30s were about winding all of that down and settling into life. I have spent plenty of this decade wistful for those years of my 20s. The mid and late 30s were rough in all of the ways. While there are some wonderful moments (Forest!), I’m glad to see them go.

Obviously I’m not the only person in the world to be having a birthday during a current pandemic. Maybe you squeaked by before mid-March and will get your turn next year, but there is definitely something to be said for having a birthday during all of this mess. Memorable to say the least! My mom is also having a milestone birthday later this month, turning 60, and at one point a year or so ago I had tinkered around in my brain with the idea for us to take a girl’s birthday trip to Scotland or something. I never really formed that beyond the idea and now it appears that was a smart plan as we would have never made it to Scotland or just about anywhere else outside the country at the moment. Maybe we will make that happen in a couple of years!

I have no grand plans for 40. Or my 40s. Ok, I do. Write books, read books, make art, make gardens, learn all the things in nature, soak it all in, more time with friends, more time with family, more traveling, more just being…just showing up. If the pandemic has shown me anything it is that time isn’t to be wasted, or that time is meant to be wasted in the best ways possible with friends and family or just a good book.

So, goodbye 30s! You started in Vermont on the Appalachian Trail and you’ll end in three hours while cozy in a house you could have only dreamed about while you slept in that tent on the AT.

7 Comments

  • shoreacres

    Happy Birthday! Here’s hoping we both get to celebrate our next birthdays in a more ‘normal’ way. It tickles the heck out of me that I’m still celebrating them — my next will be 74!

  • Nora S Cochrane

    Happy birthday! It’s been a long time since I have come across your blog. Glad you’re still at it. I have a 2 year old now. And also a home & a life that seemed impossible or unimaginable 8 years ago on the AT. I’ve enjoyed my 40s so far, hope you do too!

  • Patrice La Vigne

    Welcome to the 40 club. I can’t say my 40s have unveiled any awesome new-life-decade things, but I do think I am MUCH wiser in my 40s than I was in my 20s & 30s. I make choices to put ME first whenever I can (still battling against my pushover personality). And I think that only came with age.

    Coincidentally enough, SEVERAL of Justin’s family members have milestone birthdays this year. His sister & brother-in-law turn 40, his dad and mom 70. The kicker is his family LOVES to celebrate big. So it couldn’t have happened to worse people. I, on the other hand, could give 2 sh&*% about birthdays, but I feel bad for those who do!

    Happy birthday again!

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