Greetings from the age of 3-2. I am no longer 30 or 31. I am officially “in my thirties” and while that could scare some people, I couldn’t be happier.

Life is not always rosy and perfect. I try to do a good job of showing you life outside the Instagram filters, especially the past two years when Bo and I worked through a long distance marriage followed by unemployment. As I look back on what I’ve done with my first 31 years of life, I couldn’t be more proud.

Sure, I’ve made some horrible mistakes along the way:

• I thought that if I hid the wrappers to candy under the couch, no one would know I ate it. That was true until our apartment flooded and my parents found hundreds of candy wrappers. God bless my mother who couldn’t figure out why her daughter was chunky.
• I thought that gossip would make me cooler when in reality it ALWAYS ended up hurting someone and me.
• I thought that I could find friends in chat rooms back when I was 15 and felt alone.
• I racked up cell phone bills to my long distance boyfriend because really, who could wait until 9 pm to talk free. Speaking of which, does anyone remember when cell phone companies let you talk free from 9pm to 7am.
• I developed a horrible fear of fat, even things like avocados and olive oil, which made dining out miserable for me and my companions.
• I thought of exercise only as a method to lose weight versus an activity that could release stress and be fun or social.
• I didn’t realize how important friends and family were to everyday life, sometimes letting far too long pass between texts, emails or phone calls.

I’m sure there are hundreds of other mistakes I’ve made throughout my first 31 years of life and thousands more that I’ll make as I navigate my professional and personal life in the years to come. But, each of these mistakes has helped shape me into the person I am today.

For my 32nd year, I can only make you readers one promise. I will continue to be real and when writing or posting, balance the filtered, edited or posed pictures or posts with snapshots into our life. While it is less than perfect and often easy to peel apart, layer by layer, these imperfections are what make it absolutely perfect for me.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!