Today is my 32nd birthday! I usually have a lot of sentimental and deep thoughts to blurt out in my birthday posts each year (see them all here – 30, 29, 28, 25) but this year flew by so quickly that I’ve hardly had a second to really reassess, and think what I’ve accomplished and lived through from last July until this July. So I guess let’s take a second right now to do that, and to jump back to this time last year, when I spent my birthday weekend at The Glen Wild in upstate NY.
I feel like for a long while, after that birthday weekend at the Glen Wild, I had some tough months, and my mental state for most of 31-32 was not where I wanted it to be. I spent a few nice weeks in Marthas Vineyard with Hudson and my parents, and to be honest spent about 60% of that time working with my mom to shoot jobs and get a lot of deadlines in. The entire month of October was a huge highlight of my 31st year. I hired my first real assistant, Danielle, and learned how to delegate more, let other people into my business and my world, and I had SO much fun taking Hudson to pumpkin patches, experiencing all of the fun Fall things with him at such a fun age, and spending time with all of my girls too! Then Matt, Hudson and I took a very last-minute trip to Finland which was such a highlight for me. Hudson felt so much easier to travel with, and we really enjoyed that entire trip. November and December were very very work focused, and then when the work died down, Matt and I took our first big solo trip to Peru for 5 days, which was a nice way for us to catch our breath and reconnect.
After that quick refresher, we jumped right into a big move and a big renovation, which consumed me for a lot of my 31st year. I’d say 40% of my thoughts during this year were about planning for the renovation, living through the renovation, figuring out finances, logistics, design choices, how to shoot jobs without my own home, etc. So anytime I think back on my early thirties and say “Hm, I wonder who she was then!!!??” I should read here and tell myself SHE WAS A RENOVATION CRAZED LUNATIC. But, toward the end of the renovation as the dust settled, I felt a lot of my anxieties fade away, and I really really grew such a deep appreciation and thankfulness for the way we’re currently living. It’s so easy to get lost in the grind of it all without taking a step back and being thankful, but in the past few weeks I swear I have been.
Which I guess leads me to wrap up this little birthday saga, to say that year 31 wasn’t my easiest year, but at the end of it I am SO thankful for the process, and for where it left me, as I jump into my 32nd year. Getting older and the passage of time really scared me in my twenties, but as I live out my thirties I see it more as an organic curved line that I’m floating along. It doesn’t scare me at all, I just look at each passing day as more opportunity – opportunity to spend an extra hour playing with Hudson, or take a walk with Matt, or opportunity for something very exciting to drop into my inbox. Life is invigorating, and living it is such a privilege. So here’s to more time!!! Time is on my side!! 🙂
Thanks for sticking with me birthday to birthday!