This past year – but especially this summer – has felt a little bit like living in survival mode. There’s just been so much going on in my life that’s it’s felt like something new every time I blinked, and it was really hard to plan. I kind of had to just focus on living in the day-to-day – on getting the things done that needed to get done, and calling it good enough. There wasn’t really a lot of time (or mental capacity, maybe) to spend worrying too much about longer term wants and plans – I had to focus on the here and now to keep from getting too overwhelmed.

Today is my 35th birthday – I think that means I’m now solidly and officially in the mid-30s. I don’t know that I ever really thought to imagine what my life would be like at this point, but if I had, it probably would’ve looked different than the reality of it. In general, I feel great being in my 30s – more settled, more content, and more confident than I ever did in my 20s.