Mom's 30!

I can't believe that I turned 30 this week!  What a milestone birthday.  Surprisingly, I am quite happy about it.  Don't misunderstand, there is a part of me that feels nostalgic for my twenties...I mean what an eventful decade!  When I think back on my 20 year old self, I am amazed at how much I've grown and matured.  
Although I didn't realize it then, I certainly had a lot to learn and experience.  This "learning" and "experiencing" was not always easy, but wow was it worth it!  When I reflect on my twenties I can't help but associate those years with many wonderful moments, but also a lot of hard work and growing pains.  In my twenties I worked 40+ hours a week waitressing while going to college full-time... and I paid for every bit of it myself.  This is when I really learned the value of a dollar and the value of hard work.  I remember how I could almost never bring myself to go shopping for anything superfluous because I would always calculate how many tables I would have to wait on to earn enough money to buy it...I almost always concluded that it wasn't worth it!  I felt an enormous sense of pride when I graduated from college knowing I had truly earned that diploma.  Then I moved on to law school.  Wow, what a change of pace!  I traded in my waitress' apron for a suit and schlepped my way through full-time law school and clerking at a law firm.  It began to occur to me that this wasn't going to be as glamorous as I had imagined all those years before.  
I "re-met" my husband and had the greatest time as we courted one another, and it was in no time before I knew he was "the one!"  I got married to my wonderful husband.  I began learning what it is to be a wife (and I know this will be something that I will continue to do - learn - for the rest of my life!).  I relocated to a new state with my husband and faced many challenges stepping out of my proverbial comfort-zone to make this new town a home, and I couldn't be happier with how well we were able to do that.  I began my career as an attorney - again I began to realize that this wasn't quite what I had always expected it to be. And finally, the most amazing and wonderful thing that has ever happened to me, and will ever happen, is that I became a mom to my wonderful, gorgeous daughter.  She is my greatest joy and I could never adequately express my love for her ... but I will spend my life trying!  
My twenties were a wonderful time, and I am so happy with the many blessings I received in those years.  It is for this reason that I feel that I can truly embrace being 30, and I look forward to the many events and joys I have yet to experience.

~Missy