Another year older, another year wiser.

It was my birthday last week, I went from 26 to the 27 I had really been dreading. Its weird, birthdays haven’t bothered me that much in the past, but there was something about turning 27 that was freaking me the fuck out.

I spent my birthday away for work, on a trip for a job I started four days prior. That was also adding to the overwhelming feeling I was having about my birthday, but for the most part it was myself being overly critical of where I am currently in my life.

Leading up to it, I was spending far more time than healthy thinking about what I thought 27 looked like when I was just entering my 20s. An overwhelming thought when my life is very different from what I had imagined, great, but different.

I haven’t done some of the things I had expected to have done by the time I turned 27. But you know what, in a moment of clarity while wandering along the beach I realized that not fitting in to other peoples generalizations, or my younger self’s generalizations is not necessary a bad thing.

I may not have done some of the things I thought I wanted to do, but I have done so many other amazing things, that I never imagined I would, or even could have done.

I have traveled and have a hunger to keep exploring, I have proven people wrong and made scary life decisions (they have all worked out exceptionally well thus far), I have begun things and finished them like a real ‘adult’, I have had and am having so much fun.

My early 20’s have been challenging, frustrating, exciting, scary, fun and insightful. I have learnt lessons and done things I never thought possible. I am happy and so thankful for everything I have done and experienced, as sappy as that sounds! I guess that is the thing about growing up, things may not go as planned but it isn’t the end of the world.

I may not be doing some of the things a lot of other people my age are doing, or have done what they have and that’s ok. That’s great actually, because who wants to fit in to a standard mold? I don’t want to be just like everyone else, I want to follow my own, often-unconventional path.

I guess that’s the thing about growing up, its ok to freak out, then realize that maybe its all not as scary as you thought it would be. If turning 27 encouraged me to focus on what I had done not what I haven’t then that’s good with me!