Thirty & Awesome!

 

Some time ago Glamour did an article titled  30 Things Every Woman Should Have and Should Know by the Time She's 30. Check it out, it is quite the list. Since the big day is just four days away I’m happy to say that I’m actually able to check off quite a few of those, but the ones I can’t I think are stupid, so I thought I would make a list of my own of the 30 things 30 years has taught me, in no particular order. Here goes…

1.Take Care of the Girls: you can push them, stuff them, tug them, shove them into all kinds of crazy apparel but at the end of the day find a bra that fits you like a second skin that you wear most days. Don’t stray. It is okay to cry when the style is discontinued.

2. Know Yourself: There is always room for improvement of course, but it is silly to set unrealistic expectations. If you are shy it is unlikely you will ever be the life of the party (unless you are pretty tipsy). You can’t change your personality, just enhance it. We are taught we can be anything we want to be, blah,blah,blah, but I don’t want to be a rich socialite, an engineer or the president. The key is want. Find what you love and do that. All the learning and practice  in the world will not make me a great sales person. Not even a good one. It just isn’t me and I’m okay with that.  That’s where knowing yourself comes into play. If you want to be a teacher but hate children it might be time to re-evaluate your personality.

3. Be Okay with Just Being Okay: It is great to excel, but we simply can’t be perfect at everything. You are welcome to try, just be okay with it if you aren’t.

4. Laugh. A Lot: A good belly laugh will cure just about anything! Just be prepared to have extra meds on hand if you recently had a c-section. Otherwise you’re golden!

5. Changing A Flat Tire Is Not That Difficult: I should know, almost every vehicle I’ve owned I’ve had to change a flat on. Even after I was married. And he was with me.

6. Have Great Sex: If you are having sex and it isn’t great, you are doing it wrong. Fix it. Then thank me!

7. You Are Not As Smart As You Think: You don’t know everything when you are 16. You don’t know everything when you are 18. You don’t know everything when you are 21 or 30 either. Over the years I’ve learned that truly intelligent people acknowledge that they don’t know everything, but are willing to learn. Be open to learning something new! And by all means if you are going to be an arrogant asshole who claims to know everything, you better be able to back it up, otherwise I will assume you are stupid.

8. Fight Fair: Sure we aren’t happy all the time. We fight. We fight with our spouse, our friends, and our children. Be careful what you say when you are angry, some things just can’t be taken back. Better yet, crack a joke!

9. Rock It In a Pair of Jeans: Some people feel most confident in their power suit or in their favorite pair of heels. I am most confident in a kickass pair of jeans. Find your style and rock it!

10. You Are Worth It:  Both you (the reader)  and I are worth the time, energy and love. Always.

11. Say You’re Sorry: and mean it.

12. Surround Yourself with Awesome: Surround yourself with friends and family who love you and support your direction in life, whatever that might be. Support them too! Oh, and make sure at least some of them can supply you with the before mentioned belly laughs.

13. Chopsticks Are Painful

14. Never Settle For Less Than You Deserve: I didn’t. Now I’m married to the man of my dreams, have a family I love and a life better than I could ever ask for!

15. Garden: Plants don’t have feelings. If you kill one off they grow quickly, just try again! Try, try again. They aren’t children, if you get busy and don’t feed/water them and they die, eh…

16. You Are Never Too Old to Play Spoons: Or any game for that matter. Have fun!

17. Always Be Prepared: Although I’m no boy scout I’ve learned time and time again how important it is to expect the unexpected. For weddings, holidays, vacations or just day to day life. The sooner you realize this the better. The baby will always poop everywhere when you have no spare diapers. True story.

18. Exercise Feels Good: Sure you may be sore after a strenuous workout, but it feels good to know that you are doing something for your body, and the discomfort goes away so lace those shoes, find some tunes and  the exercise that works for you! There is something for everyone.

19. Heels Are Overrated: Preferring flats to  high heels does not make me any less a lady (though plenty of other things do) for this I make no apologies.

20. Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously: Find humor in your everyday life and laugh at yourself.  It is seriously no fun to be embarrassed, so embrace your goofier self!

21. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail: This is something I’m continuing to work on. My perfectionism often prevents me from starting projects (or anything new) out of fear of failure. I'm learning though that it doesn’t hurt to try. Trying and failing still gets you more than not doing it at all, at least you may have learned from your experience. Okay, I’ll be super honest and say this is definitely something I still work on, as I have a lot of anxiety over failing/ not doing it right. Hmm…that must be where Little Moo gets it from.

22. Sleep!!! But not like a baby…because they don’t do that.  You might think I mean you should sleep a lot. But not really, just get it when you can and enjoy your sleep. If you have kids…well you are kind of screwed. Maybe someday when they are older and you have to drag them out of bed, for now just take a nap. If you don’t have children, enjoy your rest, just don’t be offended when your friends with kids roll their eyes when you complain about not getting to sleep in until 10am. Oh and if you are young enjoy all nighters! Some of the best times I had as a youth was when I was sleep deprived. . It isn’t working out so well as a 29 year old…

23. If You Don’t Drink, Fake It: I don’t drink alcohol. I’m not opposed to it, and it doesn’t bother me when other people do it, I just haven’t found anything I like. For some reason this makes people really uncomfortable. I’m not judging you! I don’t count every drink you have and tell people how horrible you are. Actually, when everyone else has a good buzz it’s the perfect time for me to act a complete fool. I can become loud and boisterous and no one will notice or care. So fake it and have fun!

24. We Aren’t All the Same: This seems painfully obvious, but it actually took me many years to truly take this in. Even those we have the most in common with do things differently.  Allow grace for others, because NO ONE does everything the way you do. Money, parenting, cleaning, picking partners, work ethic, the list goes on.  Sure we know this intellectually but the trick is accepting it and not holding our differences against one another.

25. Huggies Are Just Better: For our first son we had to buy cheaper brands and convinced ourselves that they were just as good. We were fooling ourselves. Huggies are more expensive, but worth every penny. I spend far less in laundry detergent when the kiddos aren’t leaking out all the time. On a related note, swim diapers are no replacement for diapers/pull-ups. Trust me on this one.

26. Tell Someone You Love Them Everyday

27. Makeup You Hair: I always wonder how people get away with the messy hair look. Makeup (it doesn’t have to be a lot). It makes all the difference. Also, makeup can dress up your sweats!

28. Live In a Crappy Apartment: When you are young and striking out on your own find a little apartment with brown carpets and noisy neighbors. It  may be terrible at the time but it provides for some interesting stories later and will be the yardstick you compare your future homes to.

29. Peanut Butter & Jelly Can Be Eaten For Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

30. 30 Isn’t Scary: Strange but true, I can honestly say that instead of dreading my birthday I’ve been looking forward to it. I love the knowledge I’ve gained the past 30 years and I look forward to the wisdom the passing years will provide me with.