My twenties were amazing. I partied. I earned my undergrad and graduate degrees. Became a teacher. Partied some more. Bought my first house. Created stability for myself. And, continued to party. I met many of the goals I set for myself. My twenties were great, but not absent of mistakes, obstacles and self-limiting beliefs. Although I built a career, stability and partied consistently, as I entered my thirties I desired more and I intentionally created more for myself. Now in my late thirties, I am inspired to celebrate just some of what this awesome season of my life has brought me.

Five Things I Love About My Thirties:

1) I Am Way More Confident than I was in my Twenties

I doubted myself a lot in my twenties. I was finding myself. I did a lot of work to figure out who I am and now stand secure in that. It involved a great amount of self-reflection, a commitment to healing, the courage to ask for what I want, creating and enforcing boundaries, working through fear and believing in my badassness. I stopped worrying about what other people thought of how I chose to live and did what felt right for me. Don’t get it twisted, I am open for feedback, but it is carefully vetted.

2) I Have Wisdom and Experience…and I Use It

I learned a lot in my twenties, but more often than not I made the same mistakes, twice and sometimes three times or more. I am grateful for (some, lol) of those mistakes because they gave me experience and wisdom that I took into my thirties. Yes, I made different mistakes, lol, but I usually didn’t make them twice. I am also able to help others along their journeys with my first-hand experience.

3) I Have More Means to Do What I Want

I worked damn near full-time as a bank teller while I was getting my bachelor’s degree and I was a full-time teacher while getting my master’s but I still didn’t make enough to do many of the things I’ve done (and still do) in my thirties. To be honest, I probably could have done some of those things, but I wanted stability and invested in that. I started making more money when I turned thirty and I have my stability, so I am living it up.

4) I Know What Brings Me Peace, Happiness and Joy and I Intentionally Create it in my Life

I talked to an amazing author last year (Camille Robinson author of Unloved: The Larieux Family Saga) while I was attending a book launch for another amazing author (I edited her book My Life is Not a Sermon, Tonya Blue-Shelby) and we talked about the transition I was going through at the time. She gave me some great advice and told me to do some self-reflection about what I wanted now versus five years ago. I had to journal: What do I want now? What did I want then? What brings me peace? What brings me joy? I needed to stop and schedule time to reflect, and I’m glad I did because it had changed over time and I wasn’t consistently creating what I needed in my life.

5) My Relationship and Friendships are Deeper

I am in a beautiful relationship that has grown to feed my soul in the way I need because we are both at a place where we are willing to be honest about what we want and need from each other. We are also committed to working through things and being friends who have each other’s best interest at heart. My close friendships are built on that as well. We want to see each other win, so we pour into each other’s lives with positivity, support and encouragement.