Today I turn 39.  Not for the second or third time.  Not 29 for the tenth time.

39.

My hair has some silvery streaks in it.

My back pops when I stand up.

I have to take a physical inventory every morning when I wake up to see what hurts.

That being said, I am pretty ok with where life is right now.

I feel like birthdays give us a chance to take stock, and an opportunity to evaluate if we are where we want to be, or if changes need to be made before we travel around the sun again.

The list of changes during this trip around the sun have been so numerous, life doesn’t look anywhere close to what it did a year ago.

• I left a toxic environment and was able to find some mental peace. My facebook memories informed me that one year ago I made a comment about “It feels like my soul is tired, I am pretty sure I am worn out on a molecular level.”  I felt that way for months until it finally broke and I was able to leave.  The sense of relief being out of the situation that I was in is still with me today.
• I began a new position, in a brand-new field and have spent the year learning and growing, though I still don’t understand so much of it most days.
• I married my best friend. I know everyone says that about their partner, and I hope for most it is as true as it is for me.  There is no person I would rather travel the world with or sit on the couch and binge with.  He is everything I never knew I needed.  He makes me a better person.
• I am now the mother of a high school senior, a high school freshman, a seventh grader, and a fifth grader.
• I have maintained my way of eating, for the most part, and though I have not reached my goal yet, I have maintained.
• We traveled to some amazing places, with some fabulous friends, and seen some astounding views.

All in all, this has been a pretty good year.

I am not where I would like to be in many areas, though I am closer than I was last year.

Here is looking to another trip around the sun, full of learning, laughing, growing, and changing.

*Pro Tip: If you call it Leveling Up, it makes you sound like a Bad Ass, instead of an old person.  So, I am not old, I am Level 39!