Today I am 28 years old 🙂
When I was younger, I had plenty of different thoughts about how 28 would look for me, such as:
- married, but no kids yet…
- or maybe single, working as a teacher…
- or as some kind of engineer!
- living abroad maybe?
- dating a much older, tall, dark, mysterious man?
- celebrating at a bar with girlfriends and drinks?
Obviously, life has turned out to look like none of the above–I’m a stay-at-home mom of three boys under four, living in my hometown (for the long run it would seem!).
Nothing about life in my 20s has gone according to plan, and that’s okay. As a child/teenager/young adult, all of my plans for this decade hinged on someone taking notice of my exceptionality and offering me the time, money and opportunities I thought I deserved. If only someone had just noticed how truly unique I was, right? I was just waiting for my big break.
Of course, I am really not exceptional in the superficial sense at all. There are people out there who were better academically, are better at being teachers or engineers than I could ever be, are better suited to living abroad, are more intriguing women who naturally attract tall dark strangers, and are more social and popular than I will ever be (and are out celebrating their 28th birthdays at hip bars with twenty best friends).
But these days, I find being ordinary such a relief. The pressure is off! I can be an average person with average interests and accomplishments and be content with myself. I can find peace in waking up before my kids to drink a cup of coffee and read the Bible, and I can deal with tears and tantrums at library story time without feeling ashamed. I can take time to slow down and soak in these fleeting years with my kids as babies and toddlers. I can hang kitschy “Live, Laugh, Love”-esque wall art in my kitchen if I want to, because I don’t have to be deep and sophisticated and intellectual all the time. Or at all.
(Well, I am still a nerd who likes reading books about the gut microbiome and rewatching The Lord of the Rings over and over. But I also like typical modern farmhouse Christian wall art and Lululemon.)
My first decade of adulthood has treated me well. There was a lot of hard stuff, but I’m glad it pushed me to stop living in the gifted child matrix and started actually enjoying and making the most of reality.
Now I’m going to go enjoy some pizza and chocolate cake with Eric, the kids and my mom!
xx Claire