Farewell, 38. Farewell to thinking I need to be perfect. Farewell to caring what anyone thinks. Farewell to following anything but my heart. Farewell to the old me.

Hello to the rest of my life.  Hello to being myself. Hello to being strong and balanced, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Hello to success on a different level. Hello to peace. Hello to living it up. Hello to inspiration, celebration, awe, gratitude, love, passion, and creative genius. Hello to realizing NOW is the time and TODAY is the day. Always.

I’ve never been so happy to be another year older. Not everyone gets the luxury of aging, and I see now that’s exactly what it is—a luxury. A gift. A blessing. Not everyone has the chance to find gray hairs or to get to know and fall in love with themselves all over again. But I have and for that, I am so grateful.

I have made so many mistakes along the way. I’ve been wrong. I’ve messed up. I haven’t always been kind to myself or others. I haven’t always been charitable. I didn’t always keep my promises. I’ve hated and been hated. I’ve feared. I’ve lost. In a nutshell: I’ve been human. But life has blessed me with enough days to realize many of the errors I’ve made and gifted me with the wisdom of learning from them—and blessed me abundantly regardless of how imperfect I have been. And for that, I hit my knees in tears of joy for how benevolent life has been with me.

I have no idea what life is bringing to my door next. I’m almost always wrong in my predictions. I’ve been too willing too many times to settle for less than what I deserve, but I thank God that life has stepped in plenty of times and astounded me with things so perfect for me that I can hardly describe how lucky I truly am.

I don’t know what I did to deserve this magnificent life experience that I’ve had so far, and by no means has it been easy, but I am beyond grateful that I get to be another year older and that my story is still being written.

Life is a gift. The weirdest, strangest, most unpredictable, crazy gift ever—but still a gift.

I’m grateful to be alive today. I’m grateful to be me. I’m also unbelievably grateful to be able to say those things with complete honesty and sincerity. There’s no one else I’d rather be, and I can’t wait to see what I get to do with the rest of my life. Because if I know the Universe, the best is yet to come.

Here’s to having fun, helping people, fulfilling my potential, and enjoying every moment that I possibly can for the rest of my life. 

Happy birthday to me.