I feel 32

This blog post is in honor of my friend Dawn, who is not on Facebook and only gets her updates on my life through my blog. Love ya, Dawn!

 

Last week I turned 32. And as I reflected on the last year of my life (because, you know, I am SUCH a reflective person), I found my thoughts wandering to things that haven’t just happened in the last year, and people that haven’t just been in my life the last year, but to the last five, ten, or even twenty years. And I came to this realization (about half way home on my commute from work) that I have learned a lot about myself and about life in 32 years. And most of what I have learned has come from my own experiences, and my talks with people. So, here is what 32 years has taught me:

Patience. Be patient with those around you, and with life in general. Things will happen when they are supposed to, people will pull their lives together in their own time, and everything will work out with enough patience. Now, while I have learned patience for the last 32 years, it doesn’t mean I always practice it. I try, I really do, but sometimes my stubborn crazy side gets the best of me.

People. I have always thought I have a pretty good read on people. I can tell when someone likes me, doesn’t like me, is distracted, irritated, lazy, or any combo of the above. My first instinct is usually right about people (yes, Travis, there was one exception long ago, on a bench), and I can usually tell when things have changed as well. For a long time I took a lot of this very personal. Now I have realized that I have some pretty amazing friends in my life, and if someone doesn’t want to be there with us, I’m ok with that. There are friends I see every day, every week, only every few months, or even some I see only once every few years. I’m ok with that, but only if you are. It’s taken me most of 32 years to come to grips with the fact that some people are in your life for a long time, and others just a short time. It’s the way the world works. Something else I have learned, and that I think is so important, is that just because you have known someone a long time does not mean you need to be close. And just because you just met someone does not mean you can’t be close. I recently had a talk with a friend about the “history” of a friendship and how important that is. It is important, but so is the current give and take of the friendship. I like to surround myself with positive people who aren’t always down on themselves or their lives.  I spent this past weekend in Atlanta with two of my oldest friends. I’ve known these girls since elementary school. We have literally grown up together. It is so much fun to spend time talking about the past and all the fun we had. But we also relish in talking about the future, and where we want to go, what we want to do. We say by the river this weekend and talked about the next few years for the 3 of us. One of us is pregnant (please note, it is not me). That’s fun. I love watching my friends’ families grow, and how happy it makes them. We talked about moving, either to a new state or just a new home. We talked about expanding our travels together internationally. We talked about going to school. We talked about everything. I like times like this. And I like sharing those times with good people.

 

Travel. A lot. Especially when you are young and poor. I traveled all through my teenage years and well into my twenties. I stayed in hostels in Australia, motels in Alaska, camped in Colorado and Maine, and slept on a train a few times. And I saw some amazing places in this world. Now that I am in my thirties, vague memories of sharing a room with 8 other strangers sleeping on bunkbeds seems less than thrilling. I’ll still camp, but there’s something about a hot shower and a real pillow that I just can’t get away from. I still love to travel, but now traveling has suddenly gotten a lot fancier, and therefore a lot more expensive. Before, when I couldn’t afford to be a fancy traveler, I did it on a shoestring budget, and made it work. And I did it ALL THE TIME. Now I have slowed down, I have other responsibilities, and I have other things my still limited budget has to pay for. I still love to get away, but I find myself now trying to find a place to visit where I can lay by the pool, instead of hiking up pyramids or onto glaciers. Dammit, I got old.

Get your tonsils out before the age of ten.

There is always room for dessert. However, if you eat it everyday and you have my metabolism, you should probably also add 20 minutes more to your workout.

I am not a tea drinker. At least not in the British or Texas sense of it. I will drink it, but I much prefer herbal tea to milky tea. And if it’s iced, I don’t understand it at all.

You don’t have to stop and enjoy the small things all the time. But you should stop and take in the scene every once in a while. The little minis have taught me this one. They love the littlest silliest things. They loves walking around following the ducks and quacking at them. They like to sit and hold their teddy bears wrapped in a blanket and rock them to sleep. They will sit for hours and listen to nursery rhymes, and even sing a little E-I-E-I-O if you ask nicely. They say everyone’s name except for mine, and if I ask them to say Aunt Debs, they smile and give me an evil giggle. Fairly sure they can say it, but they know it’s a game by now. Jessica taught them to call me Debby, but mostly they call me Bebby. I love it! I love all the littles ones in my life, and I love that they are reminder for the simple things in life.

Don’t procrastinate or things will build up and not get done on time. Like this blog, which I started last week.

I’m 32 now, so that way I see it, I’m about half way to retirement, and I really should now stop pulling the gray hairs out of my hair line. My hairdresser was right, they do grow back, and now I have a little patch of short gray hairs. Dammit.  

Oh, and also, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSnDJ7exSO0