I Turned 30! | Reflecting on my 20s & Turning 30

Ah, the big 3-0! I celebrated my 30th birthday this past Groundhog’s Day, and although my bones crack more and my muscles like to randomly cramp and spasm now, I am very much looking forward to this next decade of my life.

My whole family gathered at my mom’s house for my birthday. Actually, for our birthdays. Mine and my husband’s birthdays are 4 days apart, so my family usually celebrates them together. We had delicious home cooked food, and my sister bought us a strawberry-flavored cake with chocolate-covered strawberries on top. Yum!

My 20s vs. My 30s

If I were to describe the theme of my 20s, it would be “sorting my life out.” I graduated with my doctorate at 24, started working my first full time job right after college, and was promoted to management one month in. In my personal life, I got married at 26 to my long term then-boyfriend of 5 years. So in my 20s, my priorities were:

• First and foremost, paying off my student loans

• Buying a new car – I drove my sister’s old car after graduation. It was either RWD or FWD, and not equipped for New England snow storms.

• Figuring out my long term career goals – did I want to climb the corporate ladder of my current company, or did I see myself moving onto something else to gain different experiences? Was my current job conducive to mine and my husband’s plans for the future of our family?

• Upgrading from the townhouse we bought after we got married to a bigger, “regular” house

As I got closer to turning 30, I started checking off some of the things on my to do list, and my priorities shifted towards being less about me and more about “us” and long term consequences. Currently, I’d say my priorities as I head into my 30s are:

• Children – do we want kids? How many kids, if so?

• Finishing the basement in our new house – if kids are in the future, we’d like to move our offices down to the basement as soon as possible, and use the 2 extra bedrooms upstairs as a baby room and guest room

• Stabilizing my job – I mentioned in my last post that I recently got a new job, yay! It’s much closer to being conducive to starting a family, but everything is still very new. The goal is to work hard, become stable and eventually earn WFH capabilities, so I can be more present with our kids, if we have kids

Someone once told me that your 20s are more tumultuous than your 30s, because you spend it figuring your life out. We all move through life at our own pace, and this isn’t true for everyone, but it did feel true for me. Towards the end of my 20s, my priorities became more serious and I had to think more big picture. I had to ask myself a lot of questions about where I wanted to be, who I wanted to be, what I wanted for our family, and how I was going to get there.

I can’t say I’ve got it all figured out, because there will always be something to figure out in life. But heading into my 30s, I think I see my life path a little better, and I think I’m getting closer to heading in the right direction. 30s here I come!

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Thanks for reading!