Sunday, June 26, 2011

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Today is my 30th birthday. I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few days about my 20's and wondering about what my 30's will be like. It seems like, as I'm sure it is with a lot of people, my 20's were a time of changes and new experiences. In the last decade I have accomplished pretty much all of the goals that I set for myself when I was a child and teenager. I served a mission, graduated from BYU, married in the temple, and started my family. The first half of my 20's was spent living in an apartment and enjoying life as a single college student. The second half of my 20's was spent dating then marrying Bill, having my two kids, and adjusting to being a homemaker. So recently my question to myself has been "Now what?" Now that I've accomplished everything, what's next? I was talking about this with Bill yesterday, and he said something that I thought was perfect. I wish I could remember exactly how he put it, but I'll try to paraphrase. He said that I spent my 20's reaching my goals of becoming a wife and mother, and I'll spend my 30's perfecting those roles. By the time my 30's are over Will is going to be almost 16 and Kayla will be in Young Women. So my 30's will be spent teaching them how to be good people and helping them through their childhood and early adolescence. Which is quite a daunting and overwhelming thought. And of course I can always make new goals for myself. So even though I'm saying goodbye to a fun and enlightening time of my life, I'm looking forward to seeing what the next 10 years have in store for me.