And 10 Days Later...

Ten days ago was my birthday. I'm now 33. I'd love to wax poetic or wise, but that response does not come from turning 33. Getting older is weird. In January, when I was still 32, I went to my gynecologist for my annual.

The little secretary girl said, "How old are you?"

And I actually said, "Twent.... 32."

I'm supposing I was going to say 26. Not that it was that fabulous of a year, but it's the age at which I haven't felt markedly older.

I'm young enough to get away with going to bed at 12:30 and getting up at 7:00 on a regular basis. I'm old enough that I've only lost 18 lbs since I had my last baby and he's almost 18 months old. I'm just trying to stay focused on the fact that I'm moving in the right direction, albeit slowly.

When I turned 30 I realized that I had achieved all the goals that I had set out for myself in childhood: graduate from high school, get a bachelor's degree, get married, buy a house, have kids. Some of these "achievements" are just dumb luck. It's not everyday that a girl like me convinces a guy like Wendell to marry them. And not everybody can have their hubby throw loving glances from across the room and get pregnant. On those, I just got lucky.

But I also realized that I needed new goals for the next 10 years. Here is a sampling.

*Be PTA pres and participate in the PTA at all my kid's schools.
*Get healthy--find fun ways to exercise.
*Improve my spiritual life.
*Get out of debt and find fun ways to bring in extra money.
*Early to bed, early to rise.
*Nourish my relationship with Wendell
*Get the house organized!

I think it's a decent 10 year plan. In fact get out of debt can be checked off. Or at least way checked down. But there's more to me than this. You know what I'd really like to do? I'd love to be a motivational speaker.

I know it's not the first time I've said so on the blog, but I'd really, really love it. And you know what? Even though I don't know where to start, I think being in my thirties is making me more creative. I've sent an email to our local community education pitching an idea. I'm working on an outline for said class even though I haven't got an agreement yet. I've also been trying to contact an EFY and Education Week speaker, who I met (of all places) in the line for the bathroom at BYU Women's Conference for advice.

Did you see all those words: pitching, working, trying. And no one has said yes--yet. But I'm far from discouraged. I'm enthused. I feel awake and powerful when I work on becoming what I want. And it's a good goal for the next 10 years.

I can't wait to see what another year will bring, what I'll learn, how I'll grow and what goals I'll achieve.