30

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Wow, I’m 30.

When it comes to “landmark birthdays”, I am the worst at planning them properly. Things are so much easier as a kid when your parents throw you a party every year at the local you-name-it and you get to invite a couple of classmates to join in for pizza and oh-so-decadent Wal-Mart bakery cake (with my expat experience, I have nothing but the utmost respect for this fine delicacy).

My favorite string of birthdays was 11-14, when we made our way to the local water parks for a day of splish-splash fun. The perks of being a summer baby—what happened to that love for water of mine?

Once I moved out for grad school, birthday planning was all on me. Even though I moved out at 22, I still had my Dad or sister show up to help me celebrate prior to my turning a quarter of a century years old.  My first birthday “on-my-own” was 25, and I “celebrated” it food blogger style—a restaurant in LA invited me and a guest for a free meal, and I took my lab bestie lol.

For my 26^th, I moved out to Anaheim with my sis and our bestie-since-childhood came over for the weekend from Vegas. My 27^th was the last before moving to Italy, and I “celebrated” with a lonely, underwhelming solo trip to Sweden.

My 28^th and 29^th were celebrated away from home and the loved ones I knew for all my life, but I still had a special someone to celebrate with. A low-key hike in Swiss Italy and an afternoon at an Italian zoo were still special days.

For my 30^th, my boyfriend treated me to a photo session by Lake Pusiano. It all started when I shared the Zimmerman dresses I spotted at the Wynn during my June trip to Vegas. He simply messaged me, “if you find a knock-off, it’ll go perfect with my plan”.

To which I replied, 🤔.

His plan was for me to wear a similar dress + get “made up” + take professional pics not too far from Lecco.

I wasn’t able to thrift the dress unfortunately due to time constraints, but it was cute imo!

The Sunday evening before my birthday, we drove to a small town near Lecco where the make-up artist lives and she got me ready. After about an hour in the chair, the three of us drove out to the lake for pics (my BF broke out his Canon from storage and went to town 😂) .

Despite leaving social media, I promise I know how to take pics! It’s just so incredibly awkward to do it in front of other people, unless you are in that “confident” mindset and have tons of energy.

I honestly have no clue how people have the gall to take selfies in public, without any doubt or shame!

Rather than confident, I mostly felt “cute” and the shyness took over, especially since the make-up artist accompanied us. But if this means I look “younger”, I’ll take it!

It was still a lot of fun, and I love the pictures. And unlike 9/10 girls out there, I don’t really have anywhere to post them but here, which is fine by me 😛.

Oh, I also baked a cake! Funfetti cake + strawberry frosting, straight outta H.E.B. in Texas!

PSA – if anyone from the USA is visiting me in Italy, entry fee is one box of cake mix and a tub of frosting 🤣.

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Turning another year older and entering the next decade also got me thinking about other things. I like planning ahead, but the farthest I can go out nowadays without feeling anxious is 1 year. When I was in school, I had no issue with 4 -or 5- year plans because that’s how long it would take to finish my degrees anyways.

But now, putting that much pressure on yourself to achieve X number of things in X number of years seems like unnecessary stress. Of course I want to work towards a life of financial security, healthiness, and happiness, but planning each and every single step is no longer “vision boards and jelly-pens-and-journals” fun.

For now, I’m good with reflecting on what I was able to accomplish in the decade I just completed, and what I hope to achieve in my thirties. 20-for-20 and 30-for-30-esque lists can be a bore for some, so don’t feel compelled to read—although, I welcome any comments, especially if we share anything in common!

20 Things I Rocked @ In My Twenties

1. Got my PhD.
2. Kicked my eating disorder in the butt!
3. Became a public transit wonder (no fear, your metro girl is here).
4. Traveled solo domestically and internationally.
5. Developed into an athlete via a love and drive for running (12 year old Pree who ran a 10:30 mile would freak!)
6. Avoided physically being in a car accident or traffic tickets (being in O Chem while my parked car got ran into does not count).
7. Realizing that depression just doesn’t go away and learning how to manage it every day.
8. Not being a self-absorbed, materialistic brat.
9. Accepting that I am an old soul living in a millennial’s body.
10. Loving my body and my skin (brown is beautiful ya’ll—that collagen tho).
11. Learning that wounds from the past can heal with time.
12. Running seven marathons.
13. Volunteering at an animal shelter where I learned that I must be an ACD mom someday.
14. Not being afraid to stand firm on my opinions.
15. Being a great listener and an empathetic person.
16. Honoring my body’s needs (NAPS ARE OKAY, PEOPLE).
17. Being single for a loooooooong time (no high school sweetheart or college flings here!) and being comfortable with it (I didn’t start dating until ~28).
18. Not being afraid to say when I’m uncomfortable.
19. Having the decency not to ghost people.
20. Being a shoulder to cry on (as much as I used others’ shoulders lol).

Things Freshly 30-Year-Old Me Hopes to Accomplish/Thinks She Wants

1. Fast-track to a six-figure salary via sensible means (for me, most likely will be working my way up through Medical Affairs 😉).
2. To be a cat and Australian Cattle Dog mom.
3. Qualify for and run Boston, and then…
4. Run a sub-3:00 marathon (basically, become an elite runner—a lot of the top women are in their 30s so that’s my motivation!).
5. Carefully fuel my body so it can handle the energy needs of #3 & #4. (i.e. drink more water and watch my electrolytes).
6. Publish my two (in progress) writing works.
7. Go to Greece (Santorini and that island with cats).
8. Buy property when “the time is right” (I keep going back-and-forth in regards to if renting forever is good or not…).
9. Volunteer for impactful causes (yes, politically-related).
10. Get better at accepting compliments and focusing on that more vs. harping on the “bad” stuff that happened in a day.
11. Get over imposter syndrome.
12. Empower the underdog whenever possible.
13. Finally speak another language fluently (I would love to one day fluently speak the language of my roots, Tamil…just gotta get over the mental and emotional roadblocks built up over time first…).
14. Continue to practice letting go of anger.
15. Find the best way to manage my hormones.
16. Get closer to managing my depression/OCD so that it has minimal impact on my life.
17. Help others become more self-aware/be better humans.
18. Continue to work towards living a sustainable life and leading by example to others.
19. CONSISTENTLY DRINK MORE WATER.
20. Continue to work on not caring about what others think when it comes to deciding what makes me happy.
21. Be at a place where I can say I will eventually have enough to retire, but have the energy to keep going.
22. Stop having headaches (lol, a concentrated effort).
23. STOP BITING MY NAILS FINALLY??
24. Continue to celebrate rest and enjoy naps.
25. Try not to be short-tempered/make sure I am taking care of myself so I don’t let negative feelings overpower me.
26. Be more assertive when asking for what I need (and not feel bad about it).
27. Savor my coffee and always have room for cake.
28. Become a running coach.
29. Be a career mentor/inspiration for other young women who are going through what I went through in my 20s.
30. Never let anyone get in my head and try to tell me I’m not (smart/pretty/powerful/brave) enough.

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I can’t think of anything “inspirational” to end with in this post, but I think one thing I feel good about is my direction. I don’t know if I’ll be making $XXX,XXX amount of money by the time I’m 32 or if I’ll race a sub-3:00 before 34…

But I’ll try to keep my head held high and smiling until I get there.