I love September, do you?

Why's that?

Wellllllllllll . . . Football starts again, fall weather is my favorite and then the holiday season starts and I.LOVE.CHRISTMAS!!!

Oh and one other thing - my birthday is in September! And it's a BIG one this year... the big 3-0!

It seems that most of my friends aren't too excited to turn 30, but I'll be honest, I'm pretty excited for it. I'm ready to turn over a new leaf. I'm ready to take on a new adventure. And I truly believe that my best years are in front of me.

I was curious as to why all my friends thought I was cray cray embracing 30 and I started REALLY listening to what they were saying.

"We're getting so old."
"I'm no where near where I thought I'd be at 30."
"I wish I could go back to college and have no responsibilities whatsoever."
"After 21, what else is there to look forward to?"

Stopping and listening to these comments, I started to see a common theme. It's so easy to live in the past, to worry about the future or to dwell on the "plan" we had for ourselves. . . but lets be honest, how's that working out for us?

It makes us bitter. It makes us resent change. It makes us fear the unknown. It makes growing older more stressful than it needs to be.

One thing I've come to realize during my own health care journey, is that the plan that I had made up (or the millions of different plans I had created earlier in my 20s) didn't matter. 

After college graduation I planned on living with my boyfriend, starting my career, getting married, settling down and starting a family. When that all fell through, I began planning a new life, with a new person, in a new location. Then that fell through. There were plans of living different places, starting different businesses and living completely different lives.

When I turned 25 I kinda have a panic attack. I saw where my life was going and I thought I should be so much further ahead than where I was. (I also got cellulite that year as well...)

5 years later, I'm in an extremely different place, one that I couldn't have even imagined back when I was 25. The career I thought I'd have is completely different than the one I have today. I never thought I'd be living where I'm living and I never thought I'd be turning 30 and not be married.

My 25 year old self would not have been happy had you told me how the rest of my 20s would play out. But guess what. . . everything we experience in life is meant to teach us something. I've had many of my greatest lessons in the past 3 years. And they were all preparing me for the rest of my life. I truly look at the most difficult part of my life as the biggest blessing I've ever received. The place I'm in today is exactly where I'm meant to be. I'm so happy - happiest I've ever been actually. And I have the least I've ever had.

This month I challenge you to look past where you "think" you should be or where you'd rather be. Give gratitude and thanks for where you ARE. We all experience ups and downs. We all experience good and bad times. Everything and everyone we come into contact with is making us a better version of ourselves. So embrace it. Embrace the perfect, imperfect-ness that you are. I know that's exactly what I'll be doing as I enter into my 31st year of life ;)

Happy Birthday to all my fellow September 21st babies! Bring on the pumpkin errrrthing!!!!