As I endure celebrate another birthday in what I am affectionately calling “The Dirty 30s” I realize the expectations placed on a woman in her 30s.  As an unmarried, unattached woman of a certain age I do face particular expectations from people.  It sometimes feels I am expected to be married with children and living a certain life.  That is all well and good, but my life hasn’t taken that path for whatever reason, and I am becoming increasingly okay with that.  I am making the most of my life, it is my life to live after all.  I sadly have been hard on myself when I feel I am not measuring up, and that is something I resolve to stop.  Comparing myself to others is only going to frustrate me, and letting others dictate the lens I view myself through is an exercise in futility.  Are there things I wish I could make different, yes, but I can’t dwell on what isn’t, it is embracing what is that is what is important and the best way to live.  So as I settle in with another candle on the birthday cake, that is adding more and more candles too fast now for my taste, I am learning to be okay with who I am and where I am at, no matter what anyone else wants or expects of me.  So it is with great fanfare I wish myself a Happy Birthday in my Dirty 30s ;0)

K