Vent Sesh: Life in My 30s

Ah, life in my thirties. When did I go from leaving for a party at 11 pm to barely keeping my eyelids open until 11 pm?

So many days it feels like I was just at college, dancing with a drunken slushy in my hand and grinding with my now husband (those Fat Tuesdays drinks were dangerous). I was just hanging out with my sorority sisters, cheering on my Florida Gators at Saturday football games (preceded by hours of tailgating), or even starting my first job.

Actually, I didn’t just do any of that. I graduated in 2002. What the, what…

How did I graduate college FOURTEEN years ago?! I’m an official adult. Not just a legit 21-year old who’s allowed to drink at bars but a real adult who has little babies who I’m responsible for.

I have to be honest; I have no freaking idea how I became 36 years old, married for 12 years, with two children, and two businesses.  I love it all (ok, usually), but wow, when did this happen?

Life was so easy in my twenties, even though I definitely created stress that seems absurd now. That life was cake.  We’d go out for drinks after work, meet up with friends, and read the Sunday paper in bed complete with our coffee and blueberry cornbread after sleeping in until 9 or 10 am.

Now, make it to 7:30 am and it’s like someone has given me the world’s biggest gift. I remember being 19 years old, barely making it to my 9 a.m. class across campus, running in my exhausted stupor, wondering why the hell I signed up for something for early.

I look at 20-somethings today. Life is so different for them than it was for us. We didn’t have Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat. We barely had cell phones, and my computer used dial up until freshman year in college. Memories that were likely better left uncaptured were just that… left at the party. 😉 Can you imagine if your every crazy move was put out there on the internet? They were awesome, and vibrant and fun, but no one will ever see our craziest while doing a random Google image search. Thank goodness! You will however see some not-so-great photos from my early blogging days, but hey… can’t win them all.

Now, life in my thirties is quickly flooding by. My days are filled with a million errands, creating to-do lists for work and life, trying to plan meals (never happens and I know, it needs to), getting school supplies, making calendars and chores charts, refilling medicines & making another Amazon Prime order (thank goodness for Amazon Prime!). The mental list can be daunting at times, where I see 20-somethings just trying to keep up with themselves, and 40-somethings getting used to life with teenagers or even sending their kids to college.

I don’t want to rush life away but both age categories sound pretty cush.

Yet the grass is never greener. So many 20-somethings are eager to “start their life” (for what we realize now, has already started), and 40-somethings are often trying to rediscover themselves after 18 years of focusing on others.

The past six years have candidly been an all-out-blur. I went from 30 to 36 in a snap for a million reasons. 2016 so far has been a year of reflection. We’re all still so young. I think that even in our 50s we’re still young. Think about it… if we live until 80 or 90 years old, we have a long ways to go. Long way, baby.

So, I’m officially adulting. Life isn’t always easy or what they make it out on TV. I mean, I’m blessed with 12 years of marriage and two kids and a house and all that jazz, but I hope we know that behind the smoke and mirrors and obviously a million joyful moments there are real, hard, adult moments. No one posts every photo on Facebook. Hell, it takes 74 photos to share one good one (of my kiddies, and of this girl on the blog!).

In my thirties, I love being in my pjs by 6:30 pm, I drink less than I did a decade ago, I only need a small handful of good friends, and I’m in a place where I accept all of me… and I’m OK if you don’t. I know it’s never too late to start your dream, that cellulite and size doesn’t determine our worth, and that a girls night in is often way better than a girls night out. I’ve also realized that wrinkles are a reality and that you can be both selfish and selfless all at once.

I see now how it’s easy to let our thirties slip by but selfishly, it’s also an awesome decade to discover who we are, and where we want to go. While I’m still in shock that I’m more than half way through it, it’s still pretty cool. My latest panic attack?! Holy cow: I’m closing in on 40!