10/12/2026
My last year in my 30s.
This birthday feels different. Not because I’m getting older, but because I’m realizing just how much life I’ve lived, how much I’ve overcome, and how much I’ve changed in this decade. My 30s have been a decade of building, breaking, rebuilding, growing, and becoming.
I entered this decade as a mom raising two kids, a business owner who had already been working for herself since 23, and a woman who thought she knew exactly what her life would look like. What I didn’t know was that this would be the decade I would find the courage to walk away from everything familiar. From a life that looked easy and comfortable on the outside. From security, stability, and material things that so many people spend their lives chasing.
I chose something worth so much more. I chose peace. I chose myself. And most importantly, I chose to show my children that no amount of money, comfort, or material possessions is worth sacrificing your happiness, your safety, your dignity, or your self-respect.
I wanted my daughter to grow up knowing that love should never require her to tolerate physical, mental, or emotional abuse. That she never has to stay somewhere simply because leaving would be hard. And I wanted both of my children to know that starting over is never a failure when it means choosing a better life. Some generational cycles don’t end until someone decides they end with them. I decided they ended with me.
Somewhere in the middle of all that change, I found a way to keep growing. Because I was told I couldn’t, and that I’d never be anything if I gave up my old life. But I went back to school, earned my bachelor’s degree, and finished my MBA this August. I found love again. I built a life that looks completely different from the one I once imagined, but one that feels so much more like mine.
And now, at 39, I’m standing on the edge of another huge transition. This is the year my youngest graduates high school, becomes an adult, and leaves for college. The little people I’ve spent my entire adult life (literally since 18) raising are becoming adults with lives and dreams of their own. It’s beautiful, exciting, and so very heartbreaking all at once. For the first time in a long time, I’m really thinking about what comes next for me.
So this last year of my 30s, I want to be intentional. With my time. With my babies. With my marriage. With my relationships. With the memories I make, the places I go, the things I say yes to, and especially the things I no longer make room for.
Getting to spend this birthday away with my husband, making memories and enjoying the life we’ve built together, feels like the perfect way to begin this next chapter. I’m so grateful for this man, and all of the broken pieces he’s so patiently put back together for me.
My 30s didn’t turn out the way I planned, but they turned out how they needed to, and I’m so thankful for that! They challenged me, humbled me, taught me some incredibly hard lessons, and forced me to become a version of myself I didn’t even know existed. But they also gave me courage, freedom, love, more of an education, a fresh start, and the opportunity to change what life looks like for the generations after me.
I spent so much of my 30s learning how to choose myself. I’m spending 39 learning how to fully enjoy the life I chose.
Here’s to the last year of a decade that changed absolutely everything. 🥂
P.S. To the me that rereads this in 20 years. I love you. You’re worthy. You’ve always been enough, and you’ll always be enough.
