Perspective

I started the year 2000 fast asleep in my missionary bed in Geneva, Switzerland. I figured it was God's way of helping me build character that the girl who hates with all her heart to miss out on anything had to watch all day as the city prepared for the party of the century and then go to sleep at 10:30. Little did I know that my quiet evening would usher in a decade so rich and full that my head almost explodes when I look back on it.

My biggest fear when I left on my mission was that somehow that was it. I was going to come home, grow up, get a job and be stuck in a monotonous adult life. College had been so much fun and I made such dear friends that I simply couldn't imagine things could actually be better when I could no longer stay up all night and spend half my life laughing around a table at Denny's.

My mother and I went to Paris 29 days into 2000. My dad got a kidney transplant about 35 days in. Within three months I had landed a dream job and met people who are STILL altering the course of my life.

My parents divorced this decade. I bought my first car. And my second. And my third. I was rink side for all the good stories at the 2002 Olympics, I met boys who felt like soul mates and learned that some of those are just teachers and not "the one". I moved across the country three times. I signed a couple of major sponsorship deals, ran a marathon and discovered a passion for activity I never knew existed, I made friends with all my siblings and gained three amazing sisters-in-law. I finally became an Aunt-twice! I watched nearly every friend from college and high school and my mother get hitched and sent more baby presents that I can ever count. I spent six months crying every day before I quit a miserable job but I learned stuff I wouldn't trade. I got my heart kicked around a fair amount but I still find myself offering it up so I don't think the damage is permanent. I've been able to travel like crazy and get to know some pretty great cities here and abroad. I found out sushi is completely awesome. I lived with a ton of really fantastic women over the last ten years but got to finish the decade in my very own beautiful space.

I could go on for days but suffice it to say, the 00's were flat out amazing. I feel like I accomplished so many of my dreams and got to move on to bigger ones. As my blog tagline says, I think my 16 year old self would approve-I flat out love the person I have grown up to be. The potential for the Teens or whatever we are going to call the next ten years is unreal. I already know I have Vancouver, London, Russia and Rio to look forward to which blows my mind just a little bit. I hope hope hope that these are the ten years that include marriage and babies for me and I'm proud of myself for saying that in print. It's not really a goal you can accomplish through work and tenacity like pretty much everything else in my life so it freaks me out to admit that I hope it happens. Soon.

I'll be 43 when I write the next one of these. Forty three. I'm sitting here at noon still in my jammies, listening to Bon Iver and looking out the window at the mountains in Colorado Springs and thinking that if 23 year old me had no concept of what was in store then 33 year old me should not worry about a single thing.

And with that, I'm off to go for a run. 2010 should start with a good sweat don't you think?