You know when the year passes and you feel like you’ve accomplished hardly anything of what you hoped? Well, maybe I’m just speaking about myself. My type-A mind will do that to me — make me think I’ve done much of nothing as the days shuffle through. And that’s heightened from decade to decade, each marking a phase of life.

I’m thirty now. My twenties are gone. In some ways, I’m indifferent. The moment July 1st hit, it wasn’t like I felt like a brand-new woman. But in other ways, those deep thoughts that sneak in when I wander about on my own, I feel it. I can feel the age like how a subtle wind drifts over you when you’re still.

It’s scary sometimes realizing. Because a decade feels so much more finite. Like if I’m not careful, I’ll shuffle through them like a deck of cards until there’s no more left. Life will do that to you. It’ll mess you up big time if you let it.

I’m going to brag to myself for a moment if that’s alright. This is more so to remind me that I have done something with my life in these thirty years than anything else. And that might sound dramatic, but I know if I’m feeling this way, maybe someone else does too. Try this out if you like, and see if it helps.

Okay. Here I go.

Besides spending much of your life in school and graduating magna cum laude, you got a job three months after graduating. This job moved you from intern to producer to writer to now editor.

As an editor, you travel all over, and you’ve even crossed Northern California off your bucket list. In traveling, you’ve discovered new places and people, but most importantly, you’ve discovered yourself. That you are capable of so much more than you’ve ever given yourself credit for — and that God’s roadmap for your life is far bigger than anything your mind could’ve fabricated.

You’ve found the most incredible man who has stuck by you through some really hard times, family and close friends to cherish and a home to call your own. Not to mention, three handfuls in the form of pets.

But the true progression of your life is in the growth. The moments where you just sit and think back to where you started and how far you’ve come.

And, Jasmine…

I’m proud of you.

-Jas