Voting

Monday, February 24, 2014

a beautiful goodbye.

Dear twenties,

Today is my last day with you. What a trip it's been. I'm not even sure I can remember all that's happened in the last ten years, but I'm going to try anyway. I promise I won't write it all down - most will stay in my head. :)  Birthdays always make me sentimental, nostalgic and introspective. It's just how my mind, or my heart rather, work. 

The year I turned twenty I was a sophomore in college. I was in a relationship that became the biggest heartbreak of my life. I'll be honest, that one felt like it was going to kill me, and it did kill my spirit for awhile. The great thing is that it didn't last and during the next year I had some really wonderful friends that made me see the true value of myself. I came out of that experience a stronger person, still believing in love, and ready to open up to it again.

In my early twenties I met Seth. From just about the first night we hung out together we knew it was the real thing. I could barely wait to get engaged and married. We were married in August 2006 and we bought our first house in May of that year. We are still in that "first house" but it has served us well and will always be a part of our life together. The early years of our marriage were fun and just what I wanted. In no rush to have kids and not even sure if we wanted them, we went on vacations and more than a few concerts. Friends got married, jobs for myself changed, we bought new cars. I met new friends and reconnected with old ones. It was about 4 years into our marriage when I really started to get the baby itch. It came on fast and then it was all I could think about. Seth took some convincing, but he relented (twice) and we were somehow blessed with two beautiful, lively little kids that make every day an adventure. Being a parent is more than I can put into words. I can't even try right now.

The past decade has been full of change. I became a wife and a mother, two major milestones in anyone's life. I have fallen down and grown up in both areas. I know I still have far to go. So many experiences and years of love and life. These have been good years but I am ready to move on to the next ten, or thirty, and see what lies ahead.

And so, in the words of a song that I loved at probably around age twenty:

a beautiful goodbye, baby goodbye
i enjoyed the ride, we really had a us a time
it's a strange kind of high
a beautiful goodbye

Thanks for the good times twenties.

Sincerely,
Kristen