Another Year and Another Reason to Be Grateful

This past week I celebrated my 39th birthday and while spending the week celebrating with various people, I reflected on how much things have changed in my life over the past five years. I thought about the struggles that I have gone through and how much I have grown as a person from sheer strength of will. I’ve never regretted the choices that I’ve made over the years, after all, they are what has gotten me to where I am now.

Even up until a few years ago, I often liked to go out with a bunch of my girlfriends for a night out on the town, ordering bottles and dancing all night long. Not that there is anything wrong with that because I love dancing, it’s just the whole club scene has gotten a little old to me. I’m all for going out for a few drinks but these days you’re more likely to find me in a pub or on a patio if the weather is warm enough.

For my 39th I still spent some time with friends, having champagne and congratulating each other on how badass we were even after all this time. The “Happy Birthdays” flooded in through social media and text messages giving me the warm and fuzzies as friends touched base with me. I have a lot to be grateful for as I turned 39, one of which is the release of the long-awaited book that I’ve been working on for years, You Taste Like Whiskey and Sunshine and secondly that I have a lot of good people in my life. I could honestly write all day about the things that I am grateful for in my life. Being grateful is so important these days, now more than ever.

I especially enjoyed my birthday this year because I got to spend it with my daughter. We bonded as we always do with cuddles and selfies and then went out to dinner with some friends. It’s fun to see how she handles these events as she gets older. It’s not so much the little girl who was only interested in cake. As she encroaches on her twelfth birthday she sits politely in the restaurant and worries less about the cake she can have and more about whether or not her mom had a great birthday.

So, 39 wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and the worry that 40 is right around the corner barely fazes me. You are as young as you feel and in my case, I feel like I haven’t aged at all. I’m loving life and all the good that has come into it.