My friends are growing up.
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I mean, I guess I am, too, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. It didn’t really hit me that I was an adult — a real adult, with real adult friends — until I opened my messages the other day and saw two new texts. In one afternoon, I was asked to be a bridesmaid and invited to another friend’s baby shower.
SLOW DOWN!
Don’t get me wrong; I am beyond ecstatic for my friends! I’m honored to be included in the bridal party and can’t wait to celebrate one of my best buddies. I’m pumped for my friend and ready to support her through the last few months of her pregnancy as she prepares for the baby. I’m truly so excited to attend both of these events.
I’m also just a little bit shocked, because part of me still feels like I’m 17. No way are me and my friends ready for marriage and babies and everything else. That’s for grown-ups.
But then the stark reminder creeps in…we are the grown-ups.
SLOW DOWN!
As my best friend loves to remind me, I’m just a few years shy of 30. Part of me believes that this is when my life will truly start, when I have three decades of experience behind me. Everything until then is just practice.
But that’s a fallacious way of looking at it, because I’m living now. There’s no practice run here. This is my life.
It’s not even that I feel like I’m behind. I know a lot of people experience those feelings when their friends begin getting married and having babies. It’s a completely understandable reaction, especially in our culture where it’s so easy to compare and the FOMO — fear of missing out — is real. If you ever feel good about yourself, spend ten minutes on social media, and you’ll be humbled.
But for me, it’s not even that. I feel pretty comfortable with where I’m at in life. I don’t regret my decisions or the pace at which I’m going. I feel like everything will have its time, and my timing makes sense to me right now.
Still. As I scrolled through the baby shower registry and looked at color swatches for the wedding, I was a little thrown off.
But that’s okay. Even if I’m still adjusting to the fact that I’m a real adult person, I can still enjoy the ride.
My main goal is to not feel like I’m waiting for my life to begin. There’s no waiting until I feel ready or holding off until things slow down, because there is no slowing down. I have this one wild and precious life, as Mary Oliver wrote, and now is the time to live it.
I’m pushing myself to live more intentionally instead of waiting in the wings for things to happen to me. No more waiting for my life to begin.
My life is happening, and I don’t want it to happen to me. I want to be an active participant. So I will attend the baby shower and I will be at the wedding, and I look forward to both of these events wholeheartedly. And in the meantime, I’ll be reminding myself that this is my life, and it’s up to me to live it. What a gift.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
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