"Everything I know, I learned after I was 30"

Last Thursday I entered in to my last year of my twenties.  I know to some people turning 30 is something they dread.  I have friends that have had serious struggles with the big 3-0.  My husband has been mocking me all last week about how I was getting so close to being old (to those over 30, do not take offense - he has a crude sense of humor)!  However, I am actually excited to turn 30.  

In my 20's, I have encountered enough struggles to last me a lifetime.  I feel like you stumble through your 20s.  It is hard to feel like you are on solid ground so much of your time during your 20s.  

You are in your safe little haven of college, where professors tell you how great you are.  They paint grandiose scenes of what it is going to be like when you graduate.  You are spoon-fed these ideas that you are going to graduate and go to these glamorous parties, working on big client accounts and making the big bucks.  You think that you are easily going to find this great job - that you will graduate and in the same time they hand you your diploma, you get that cushy job offer.  

For me at least (and I know I was very fortunate), I was on mom and dad's dime all through out college.  Graduating and then the months-long search consisting of eight-hour days looking for and applying to jobs is not what I had envisioned.  Then soon thereafter, mom and dad have the conversation of when is the appropriate time for me to start taking over some of my bills.  After countless disappointing interviews, I finally was offered a job that was definitely not the glamorous gig that college described.  I was making barely more than minimum wage, working long hours and stressed out.  I feel like this is the story of your 20s, professionally.  You are trying to find your grounding.  You get knocked back down to reality more times than you care to admit.  It hasn't been until my late 20s that I finally do not feel like I am grasping at straws to make it through a business meeting, and I think that it is only going to get better.

The other part, for me at least professionally, is being a blonde girl in my 20s, people always assume I am young and not to be taken seriously.  Even though I have had positions of responsibility, I haven't ever felt like I was taken seriously.  I have had comments made to me that I am too young to know what I am talking about.  Some people will hear the year I was born in or what year I graduated high school from, and then automatically start to question things I could possibly know or experience I could possibly have.  So as corny as it may sound, I guess I sometimes think that if I am 30, at least maybe some of those comments or questions may subside. 

Then you have personal struggles.  I have lost friends and made new ones.  I have learned the hard truth that certain people come in to our lives for only a short time.  Others are there for a lifetime.  I have been fortunate enough to learn the definition of a true friend and been blessed with some of the best friends a girl could have.  I have had to let people go way before their time and experienced death to a point that I fully understood its true pain.  I had to say goodbye to one of the greatest men in my life during my 20s - my grandfather.  I had my heart broken a few times and broke some hearts along the way during my 20s.  Finally I found my husband, so at least in the romantic department - I got that part taken care of during my 20s.  

My 20s have been full of ups and downs, struggles and triumphs.  I will cherish everything I have learned and experienced during my 20s, but you will not find me being one that is freaking out about being 29, or saying this is the last birthday I will celebrate.  This time next year, I will kick off my 30s with a great bash and welcome the age.  In some respects, I feel like this song is a good representation of your 20's:

Colin Hay, Waiting For My Real Life to Begin