My sister, Leah turned 30 in March (I’ve been working on this post since before then!) and that’s huge! I am happy for her and the new decade that lies ahead. Everything seems to be going really well in her life right now.
There are almost 12 years between me and my sister and it has been both a delightful and sometimes agonizing process to watch her grow into the woman she is today.
Our parents would be very proud of her and how strong our bond is as sisters.
As I wrote in Leah’s birthday card, I remember turning 30 and what a strange, sad and yet magical year it was, not to mention the nine that followed.
In some ways it seems eons ago and in others as though it were just yesterday.
I celebrated my 30th birthday with family and what I thought at the time were close friends surrounding a tepan table. I don’t remember any gifts I received that night but I distinctively remember feeling equal parts anxious and excited about the next 10 years of my life.
I talk to no one who was at that dinner today except my sister. My (at the time soon to be ex-) husband and in-laws were there and several people that are now only “Facebook friends”. The two most important guests were my parents and they died five years later during the not so magical part of my 30’s.
I was 30 when my first husband and I parted ways, I started wearing clothes that fit me because I was finally comfortable with my body, I had a job I adored at an advertising agency and I met and made friends with women that I couldn’t have imagined would become so important to me in the next decade and the one after that. I lived alone for the first (and only time) in my life and loved every minute of it!
Before I turned 31 I would meet my now husband and experience love like I had never known, but before that I would curse the time I wasted with my ex because I thought he was “The One” and my only shot at having a family. Clearly I was delusional. I also had other demons to fight and I struggled to find solid ground in the workplace and my bank account. 30 (and beyond) is when it all came together for me, I was no longer a child and came to understand that life is not always fair and that’s okay. Fair doesn’t leave any room for grace or mercy.
Happy Birthday, again, my sweet Leah. I hope your decade is off to a exceptional start and only gets better.
Leah & I celebrating her 30th birthday at Little Sister, Manhattan Beach – March, 2014
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Sounds like a decade full of ups and downs, Tonya. May Leah have a wonderful decade ahead of her!
I adore this line: “Fair doesn’t leave any room for grace or mercy.”
I need to remember it.
What a tumultuous time for you! We all have those times that make us really appreciate where we are right now. Thirties were when I really found out who I am, too. I’m glad you were able to get through it all with the love of your sister. I only have brothers and I’ve always wondered what it’s like to have a sister.
I hope your sister’s decade is awesome – as is yours! You and I must be about the same age and I have to say I’m liking my 40s better than my 30s already 🙂
Happy birthday to your sister! I agree the 30s are all about learning who you are, at least they were for me. I remember my 30th birthday vividly too. It was tarnished when a lot of ugly from my past reared its head. That was going to be the year that I lost my dad and everything in my world shifted and changed.
Happy Birthday to your baby sister and here’s to a decade of discovery and delectable treats for her.
My 30’s were so incredible and heart achingly painful too. Marriage, infertility, my sons finally being born and coming into 40 more healed than I had been in decades.
She has you, which is the greatest gift of all. Sisters are forever.
Happy birthday to your sister! She is lucky to have such a good big sister, with so much wisdom!!!
Happy birthday to your sister & what a lovely photo of the two of you!
im a bit far from going to 30s but im thinking how cool it would be, that time my baby boy will be old enough, he will surely my inspiration for all these years… wonder what it feels like to be 30 years old.. anyway happy birthday to you and your sister…
Happy birthday to your sister!