Musings About Turning the Big 3-0

Hey, y'all! Well, today is officially my 30th birthday. And what a happy one it is! Anyway, I survived my 7-9:30 p.m. Literary Criticism & Theory class in order to celebrate the occasion with my dear friend Jenn last night. Needless to say, we had a total blast. As far as how I feel today, well, I don't feel that much different. So far, 30 is shaping up to be pretty danged promising. (For some reason, 27, 28, and 29 were sort of tough. When I started grad school last summer, however, I gained a whole new sense of direction, which improved the situation considerably. Oh, well, as the Buddhists say in the "Four Noble Truths," life is suffering, and suffering is inevitable. Gotta take the good with the bad! I know I'm on the right path now. I now refer to the aforementioned three-year period as my 'learning, growing, questioning years.') I sense some big life changes in the air in the Ashleyverse right now. Of course, I think the real change will occur with the Eurotrip in June. As the brochure I received at that informational meeting says: "You'll come back a different person." We shall see about that! For the time being, I'm just going to enjoy all the little everyday things and take life's little surprises as they come. (BTW, it appears that I share my big day with some very interesting individuals, namely Norman Rockwell and Charles Dickens. Tomorrow is Rosa Parks and Betty Friedan's birthday. So, I suppose this is a rather revolutionary time of year.)