Last week, I turned 30 years old.
For the first time since I began working six years ago, I took some time off on my birthday. While most list London or Paris as their bucket list destinations in college, I was dreaming about the vivid spice mounds and intoxicating chaos in the souks of Morocco. I decided, a month before the actual date, to make that dream a reality.
Two weeks before leaving, I was bogged down by numerous campaigns happening simultaneously, pressing deadlines, impending story edits for a book I was helping out with, completing an article, and a perpetually endless to-do list. In fact, I was writing and sending out work emails up to 30 mins before take-off.
Yet, in spite of it all, I am happy.
It sounds so simple now, but my journey to happiness was anything but. My 20s were rough - I was in a constant battle with myself; worrying about my weight, figuring out my style, assiduously feeding my trite desire to be as ‘whatever' as everyone else.
Like all things worthy, Time was needed. To be happy. To figure out how to be kind to myself. To accept and love me for me. To not just choose happiness, but to (actually) feel it.
It took three decades to say those three words and fully mean it. I didn’t wake up a week ago and flicked on a switch to be happy. It was a long, (at times) painful process that was hard-won, but I am eternally grateful for it. Because, if my journey to happiness didn’t cost so much, I wouldn’t treasure it as much.
I learned happiness when I made hard choices and tough sacrifices for the life I want. I discovered happiness when I decided to move forward instead of allowing the fear of the unknown to paralyze me. Most of all, I live in happiness when I found The One who weaved purpose into my veins thirty years ago.
Here is a little something this newly minted three-decader wants you (and herself) to know:
You need to know that you are enough, just as you are.
Your worth is not tethered to how you look, what you weigh, where you live, or who you date.
You will find strength through challenges.
You are more resilient than you could ever imagine.
You are more than all of your mistakes.
You are loved. You are valued. You are complete with or without a partner.
You are enough, just as you are.
There is this incomparable lightness which comes from just being you, freely and gloriously. It is a freedom unlike any other - to live the life you were created for. It is my prayer that, if you have not, you will discover it some day.
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