So, this happens to lots of people, but it turns out it’s pretty darn hard to wrap your mind around it when it happens to you.

 I turned thirty.

 Aaaaaaaaaaah!  Actually, it wasn’t that bad.  I had the distractions of England (Cornwall, to be specific) to take my mind off the moment when the needle officially ticked from 29 to 30.  That’s sort of why I planned my trip for mid-October instead of my preferred travel month (September).  To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I would handle it.  Now that it’s behind me, I think I did about as well as could be expected.  I spent the day hiking along the beautiful cliffside South West Coast Path near St. Ives in England, enjoyed a bottle of wine with hubby and had a delicious dinner at a beachside restaurant.

This whole 30 thing is way too new for me to have a real take on it.  I don’t really feel any different at 30 than I did at 29.  Although I am making more of an effort to remember my night creme.  It’s a process.

One thing I did reflect on was how different my life is now from what it was the last time I entered a new decade.  When I turned 20… I lived in half a room in my sorority house in upstate New York.  My roommates included my little sis, a very large teddy bear (hers), and a very small teddy bear (mine).  I was a junior in college, majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations and trying to figure out where the future was taking me.  Corporate law?  Human resources management?  Political consulting?  Jail for acts of civil disobedience?  I had a brand new adorable boyfriend and I was completely crazy for him.  (Readers – I married him.  But not until I was 23.)  My hobbies included singing R.E.M. songs into my hairbrush and making up stupid nicknames for the various campus dining halls and libraries I frequented.  Life was good.

Nowadays… I live in a four bedroom house in northern Virginia, which is the second home I have owned.  My roommate is that adorable boyfriend I had just acquired at age 20, only now he’s my adorable husband of six years.  After some time spent “paying my dues,” I am finally working in my dream job, so I have a pretty good sense of what I’d like my future career to look like – progressing up the ladder at my current firm sounds just about perfect to me.  Hobbies include yoga, hiking, reading, and… um… singing R.E.M. songs into my hairbrush.  Life IS good.

At 20, I had big goals and plans for things I wanted to accomplish that decade.  And for the most part, I checked the boxes I wanted to check.  I graduated from college, moved to D.C. (a city I’d always wanted to call home) and went to law school.  I got married.  Graduated law school, passed the Bar and got my first “big girl job” as an attorney.  Left that job after two years for a brighter future in private practice.  Bought a condo, sold a condo, bought a house.  Went to Europe not once, but three times (and a few other places too).  You could say it was an eventful decade.

Looking ahead to the new decade… I don’t have nearly as many big-time goals and plans.  With relatively few exceptions, I mostly just want things to stay the same.  I want to stay at the same firm and in the same house.  I want to continue loving that sweet guy I married more every day.  I do have one big goal for my 30s, but I’m not ready to go public with it – you’ll all hear about it when the time is right.  But for the most part, I don’t have a long list of “things I want to accomplish in my 30s.”  When I look back at my 20s, I got quite a lot done…  Right now, I just want to take some time to enjoy being where and who I am today.

So here I am, 30, and strangely okay with it.  I have a great job, good friends, a house I love and a husband I’m still completely crazy about.  I have no idea what the next 10 years holds, and I’m sure it will bring its own set of challenges.  But I think (hope) I’m up to them.  I want to meet each day with a sense of joy and purpose.  The past 10 years has been a lot of work – lots of studying, planning, grinding, and striving to get the life I now lead.  Now, I think… it’s time to enjoy.