Great Life Expectations

So, last weekend I turned the grand old age of 32. Like with any birthday, this was a moment of reflection on where I was with my life (along with the obvious celebrations, cake and of course presents!)

32 might not sound like a particularly milestone age, however for me it was quite significant. At 32 my mum got married and had my sister. That same sister was also married and had a one year old at the age of 32. Me meanwhile, turning 32 has just postponed my wedding and definitely have no babies lined up!

Now, I know weddings and babies aren’t the only marker in life. And there will be people reading this thinking I’m only 32, I still have a good few years of baby producing years left in me yet if I want one and if not there are always puppies.

But there is definitely something about the life race which makes you feel like you need to tap off certain marker points by certain ages, otherwise you won’t get the grand prize. Whether that’s married by 30, Director of a company by 40, retire anytime before the age of 100 for most people my age!

However, 32 was also significant for me because it marked my 10 year anniversary of leaving home (this is of course if you ignore the boomerang, when I had to go back for a couple of months this summer whilst buying my current house, but we won’t go into that.)

Now, ten years ago, I thought I’d hit one of those key life marker points, of moving in with my boyfriend who I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I hadn’t envisioned that two years later we’d break up and I’d be living in a flat by myself in Southsea.

At the time, I’m not going to lie this was scary. I swear the first flat I lived in was haunted and it was almost impossible to heat… but it showed me just how strong I was and I went on to have some of my best life experiences that I would never would have predicted in my “life race”

I’ve also written ALOT about the bad dating experiences I had in my 20s. And again, this isn’t what I had expected for my life as I saw friends and family meet their soul mates in their teens and twenties. But looking back, as painfully funny as the countless tinder trolls and disastrous dates were, I would do them again in a heartbeat if I knew at the end I was going to meet my soul mate Stu.

So, I guess the main thing I’ve learned while it’s easy to get hung up on the life marker points, we should be enjoying the journey, with its twists and turns, because we will end up at the same finishing line in the end.