08/26/2026: Another Trip Around the Sun

Tomorrow I’ll be celebrating another year of existence, and as I write, I’m sitting here wondering where thirty went. Such a pivotal milestone flew by so fast, and now I don’t know how to feel. I guess I finally understand the “it’s just another year” mentality I used to laugh at. 

This isn’t to say that I’m not excited; it just feels like, as far as milestones go, that the next goalpost is a long way off. I guess I could shoot for accomplishing something by thirty-five and forty, if I’m not keen on waiting another decade to feel a universal shift in my life. They say that your thirties are the best years, while others say that your forties are when life really begins, so I guess I’ll just have to figure it out for myself and share my own findings. I hope I’m happy with where I ended up in five years, ten years, twenty years, and so on, for however many years I end up getting. 

After lots of preparation and even more running around, I’m finally ready to make my birthday escape this afternoon, to relax, create, and make new memories over the course of the next week. A recent spark has ignited my inner flame to make new things again, and I can’t wait to lean into that feeling and see what comes of it in my much welcomed solitude, my time for rejuvenation. With a backpack full of pens, paper, and books, I look forward to catching up on all the things that matter to me with the person who matters most of all, and talking about deep and meaningful things with him. It’s a rare thing we have, and it’s something that we do often. 

Yesterday, we spent hours talking about the journey of figuring out who we are and what we want, what motivates and inspires us, and the people we admire that keep us moving forward. I told him about a quote I saw recently that said: “A big part of who you are is who you aren’t anymore,” and this ended up being my favorite part of the conversation. We talked about how important it is to know who you aren’t and what you don’t want, and how it’s one of the most important parts of the journey. That quote is the reason I’ve been thinking so deeply and looking at things so differently lately, so much so that I’ll probably be chewing on it for a while.  

Sometimes, it’s enough to realize you can’t continue on being a certain way or living a certain way. Sometimes, confidently saying you are no longer who you were and that you refuse to devote your life to things that no longer serve you is the catalyst that launches you forward on the road to finding who you were always meant to be. But the question is, will we stop dead in our tracks, or will we find the strength to press on?

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to spend my numbered laps around the sun blazing a trail forward.