Here’s to 30! Celebrating my birthday by choice

It’s my birthday and now I’m thirty! It’s almost crazy to be publishing on the internet that I have hit a milestone like this… After all, it may seem silly, but I have been dreading turning thirty for quite some time now… I’m not sure if it’s because of society’s push to have your life together, or the connotation that everything is downhill from here. Well, whatever it was, I was afraid to hit this number and even acknowledge that my birthday was so close!

When I was eighteen years old, I made quite the plan for my life up until I turned thirty. I promise I wasn’t being morbid and assuming that life ended on July 16th, 2021. It was just so far out that I couldn’t imagine what would come next. And what does come next?

Related: Things that scare me about getting older

I thought about sharing all of the goals I set for myself going forward, but the honest truth is that there are none. So instead of adding anxiety to the day, I’ve decided to take a look at the past and see how far I’ve come. You know, the goals and whatnot. Yeah, that’s what we’ll do… Let’s take a look at how life has been up to this day.

How do I feel about my birthday?

Before we dive into this, I thought I would share just how I feel about this birthday thing. The very last birthday party I planned was when I was eleven. On that day, I had a few friends come over to my house for a pool party, but not everyone wanted to swim in the midst of winter. What bores! Well, since we weren’t swimming and there was no music, they got bored. And they even had the nerve to tell me how bored they were!

Fast forward to my twenty-fifth birthday and we have another failed disaster. I had planned to rent out a beach house for the weekend and ferry a few friends to this island for the big bash. Well, let’s call it the force of family that forced me to cancel and go along with the typical family birthday dinner.

Of course I’ve had a few good ones. My eighteenth was lovely because my friends planned a lovely night in Tokyo. My twenty-first was bomb because the same party-animal friend threw a surprise… But without anyone to do something for me, my day is usually bleh. So come thirty, I planned to travel but covid. Then I planned some lovely evening getaway with hubby, but the president imposed curfew. And then I decided on day activities but just days before, riots broke out in my province forcing business wonders to shut down for their safety.

And that is why I’m celebrating my birthday by choice.

The ticked goals

But alas, things always look better in hindsight!

If you are a woman and did not make the typical married by twenty-five, pregnant at twenty-six, and the first baby by twenty-seven plan, I commend you. Of course, we each had our own versions of that one but the concept remains the same. Well, I am happy to announce that I was NOT married by twenty-five, although I was with the man I knew I would marry.

Everything happened in the following year… Marriage, pregnancy and baby, all before I turned twenty-seven. Just don’t do the math, you might get confused. 😏

Of course, I had no idea just how life was going to make such a huge turn because I was wandering aimlessly, finding purpose only in my job. And yet it did all come together. Go figure!

I had also planned to have my first property by twenty five and be done building my dream home by thirty. Hefty goals! But strangely enough, I was able to buy a few plots (in cash) before twenty five, and miraculously built my home just last year.

My not yet’s

One thing that was high on my list was to start my own company. I had specifically wanted to build a luxury gym on one of the lots I had purchased because there was none in the vicinity. Well, I don’t know if that plan invoked robbing the bank because who can fund such so early in their career!

I also planned to be in a management role by my thirtieth birthday. Unfortunately, that is far from the reality I live right now. I can’t go into details, but the closest I’ve come to management is managing my own blog. Hurray!

I planned to travel to at least two countries each year… And all was going well, until covid. And now with a family, a mortgage and a job, I don’t quite see that happening. At least until my kid is big enough to endure long flights without throwing a tantrum!

You may Also like: Things I need to understand before turning thirty

So what next?

Remember how I said I didn’t make any goals for the future? I wasn’t kidding. Over the past decade, I have been so stressed out with the goals I had set out that I didn’t quite get to enjoy my twenties. That had to change! Going forward, I’m going to keep being an awesome mom, hard worker, and loving wife. Everything else will just fall into place as it should be.

I know it sounds unconventional to not set goals, but for my thirties, I want to just have fun. Worst case scenario, I just complete my ‘not yets’.

And now I’d like to hear from you…

When is your birthday, and what are you going to celebrate?

Psst! Let’s hang on social media!

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