This week I won’t be writing about summer trends, or really cute shoes for warm weather, or how I’ve been styling my hair recently. Although these are all fun topics that I loveeee to talk about, I decided to shift gears this week and just be real with you guys. I want to talk about something I’ve personally been struggling with recently. And that is what I often call “the timeline of life”. 

As a little girl – and I’m sure every girl can attest to this – you kind of create this timeline for your life of when you would like certain milestones to happen. For example, finding your dream job, engagement, buying a house, marriage, kids, etc. In your mind you kind of plan out your entire life and when exactly you want these very special moments to occur. I know for myself that I had an age in mind for every one of these milestones and when they needed to happen for me. There were no exceptions.

I thought every single one of these milestones I listed above would have happened for me at this point. I’m 29 years old and I genuinely thought at this age I would have it all – my dream job, be married, own a house, and at least would have started to have kids. The reality? I have none of these things. NONE. Not one single thing. Notta. Zilch. Nothinggggg.

That is where I’ve been struggling – comparing my timeline I created as a little girl to where I am now in life as an adult. I also compare myself to others around me who are my age and where they’re at on their timeline, or even my own parents and how old they were when all of this happened for them. It doesn’t help when you have people constantly in your ear asking you “when are you getting married?”, “why don’t you just buy a house?”, “what’s your plan?”. It’s a constant comparison of where I thought I would be versus where I actually am now and to be honest, it’s exhausting.

Unfortunately society leads us to believe that if these milestones aren’t completed by the time we reach 30, we’re behind. We’re fails, like might as well start over. And that thought ate me alive for a longgggg ass time. There was kind of this dark, rainy cloud hovering over ⛈30⛈ because I felt as if I had an assignment to complete but knew I was going to miss the deadline. It’s almost a panicky feeling, which then turns into disappointment, and then sadness. I find that there is this increased pressure for women too for some reason. I’m not sure why that is. 

But what I’ve come to learn (and am still learning) is that you can never predict life, no matter how freakin hard you try. In fact, the most unpredictable thing in this world is life. As an event planner and very much a type A personality, this is the hardest pill to swallow. It’s weird because when I hangout with friends and there are no plans I go with the flow – no problem, no stress.. But when it comes to me… I’m much harder on myself. 

As someone who struggles with this whole idea, I’m here to say forget the timeline. Kick it to the curb. It doesn’t matter. This timeline doesn’t define you and it also won’t change how things will actually unfold in your life in any way. Life is going to happen how it’s going to happen, so why not enjoy it for what it is? The reality is that I’m actually very happy with where I’m at right now in life… so why rush to change that?

Would it be nice to have my dream job? Would it be nice to own a house? Absolutely! But those things will come in time. I know they will. I have finally accepted that my bullshit “timeline of life” really was just a young girl with big dreams who was influenced by what society constantly put in front of her as the “standard”. I’m hear to report that this 29 year old is happy, healthy, and accepting of where I’m at. Excited actually!

For anyone else feeling like me, stop stressing. Age really is just a number. I think writing this blog has been in a way therapeutic for me too. I’m done with the pressure and guilting myself for truly just living my life the way I’m supposed to be living it. Life is beautiful, don’t lose sight of that. We only get one so EMBRACE IT. Let’s count this stage of accepting as a milestone now, shall we??

Cheers to LIFE! ✨

Peace & love!

TL