My 29th Birthday

Hi & happy Summer Solstice 2018! ☀

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve popped in here. Aside from a second trip to California earlier this month, I turned the big TWO-NINE on Tuesday (← the sweetest video of me and my pup). Twenty-nine, folks… how can that be!?

June 9, 2018 (10 days short of turning 29)

While my presence on my blog isn’t always consistent, it is still crazy to think that a huge chunk of my twenties (from graduating college and becoming a certified health coach to training for half-marathons, international travel and saying goodbye to my full-time job in corporate wellness/moving across the country) are documented here in this online space. I sorted through the Nutrition Nut archives to dig up birthday-related posts that date back to 2010 (my 21st birthday!). It’s definitely fun to witness the changes throughout the years, and how some things stay the same (like getting takeout sushi for my birthday dinner).

I honestly don’t know where I thought I would be at 29. Probably married, with kids, and groovin’ in a career. Hah! None of those things arebtrue, and I sure as heck didn’t imagine I’d be where I am today. I don’t know what 29 has in store for me, but one thing I do know is that I want this last year of my twenties to be abundant with self-acceptance and self-love.

I have spent much of my twenties trying to figure out who I am and what I want (isn’t that what this decade is all about!?); and with just one year left in my twenties, I can admit that I still don’t have my goals and aspirations all mapped out. And that is a-okay. Because those will inevitability keep changing, as I do. The one thing I am certain about, from surviving nine years in my twenties, is that I must accept who I am, and where I am, in life right now — not next week, or after I land a new job, or when I’ve checked the societal boxes of being an adult like buying a home, starting a family, etc. I must accept that I am technically unemployed, lonely at times as I figure out life in Florida, and on drastically different path than I was one year ago.

My hope for 29 is that with increased confidence and vulnerability, I can step out of my own damn way and embrace who am — flaws and all. If I am learning one thing in my twenties, it’s that self-acceptance married with self-love is essential to where you want to be… and is perhaps the golden ticket to a fulfilling life.