#obligatorybirthdaypost

[crystalbaby12]

Obligatory birthday photo! 🎉🎊 #me #selfie #mirrorselfie #longhair #makeup #positivevibesonly #bodypositive #loveyourself #beyou #obligatory #obligatorybirthdaypost #birthdaygirl #birthday #happybirthdaytome #happybirthday #herestomanymore #celebrate #celebration #thankful #thankyou #like #followme https://www.instagram.com/p/B7144xppPsG/?igshid=1i1h2dburyx9z

[moonlight-reefer]

Alexa play “Gin And Juice” by Snoop Dogg 🔥 #obligatorybirthdaypost https://www.instagram.com/p/CohgirSuBeo/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[supertheatrica]

Quarter life meltdown in full effect. 😱 📸: @brooke__allyson . . . #obligatorybirthdaypost #lacma #25 #bday #fullswing #run #hide #scream

[nouvelleschapitres]

Apparently nobody likes you when you're 23. #obligatorybirthdaypost #theyattackedwithsparklersandagong #abigassgong (at Miso Asian Grill & Sushi Bar)

[cinderellaincombatboots]

24 on the 24th. While I can say I'm no longer a stranger to the bittersweet wildness of young-adulthood, I still can't claim to be an expert in it. So here's to all the lessons I'm yet to learn, all the bruises I'm yet to get (metaphorical and otherwise, unless someone can give me an anti-klutz antidote or something), all the laughter I'm yet to release, all the tears I'm yet to shed (or keep at bay), all the problems that will attempt to dampen my spirit, and all the blessings I know the Big Guy Upstairs is sending my way. Family, friends, mistakes that make me grow, little triumphs. Stories I will read, stories I will write, stories I will live. Love in all its shapes and forms. There's so much to celebrate now, and I know there will be more in the future. Cheers to being 24! :) #FeelingDebutante #lol #24on24th #ObligatoryBirthdayPost #latergram (PS: Thanks for all the heartfelt messages, greetings, and wishes! I appreciate them!)

[chroniclesofmoriah]

How years gone by so fast, this kid is not a kid anymore. Dear self, please be more responsible now that you're no longer a teenage girl. 😉 #vscocam #vsco #throwback #obligatorybirthdaypost

[kelleythinksso]

May 12: 29

I've always been a little too sentimental about birthdays. I look back on the past year and measure the ways I’ve grown and changed. I feel proud of goals achieved and lament those I haven’t even really begun. I make resolutions for the coming year.

I spent several hours yesterday in transit and it gave me a lot of time to reflect. 28 was a busy year. We celebrated our first year of marriage. We welcomed a puppy into our home and new life into our extended family. I finished school for good. 

In many ways, 28 was an entire year of reflection and inventory. I took a hard look at the relationships in my life and stepped back from those that were more work than anything else. I finally set firm boundaries between myself and my parents. I simplified my wants and considered that if I didn’t have something, maybe I just didn’t need it. I combed through our house and got rid of tons of stuff I’d been carrying around for years for the sake of nostalgia. I read more than I’d hoped to and wrote more than I have in years.

As I looked back on the past year, I found myself looking back on all my years. After all, part of me is still the five year old girl who found herself enraptured by sunsets and fireflies and felt the world was a magical place full of beauty to admire. Part of me is still the ten year old girl who wistfully consumed love stories and looked forward to one of her own. Part of me is still the fourteen year old running her finger across a map of the world and daydreaming about traveling and adventure. Part of me is still the eighteen year old who was struck dumb by the boy with the prettiest brown eyes she’d ever seen. There are days when I experience the world as though nothing has changed since those years.

I have spent a lot of time considering my story and wishing I could edit out the parts that have haunted me. There are entire years I would draw a line through if I could. I’ve only recently come to realize that maybe our stories don’t have to define us. Events, memories, genetics and lessons don’t have to be anything more or less than exactly what they are. 

I am 29 and I am happier than I’ve been in a very long time because I’ve finally found a way to let go of the parts of me I’ve carried despite wishing them away. I’ve found joy in simplicity. I’ve found beauty in the woman I’ve become, one who is still in many ways a girl with big dreams who tries her best and gets back up. One who sees not just what it, but what could be.

Any emotion has a wildfire nature. Anger begets anger. Love begets love. Joy begets joy. I learned this year that when you look for joy, sometimes it’s all you notice. The only goal I have for my twenty-ninth year is more of this. More happiness, more joy, more beauty. More books, more writing, more time spent with the ones I love. I want to make the most of everything good in my life.

I have always found comfort in literature and it almost never fails that there has already been someone who has said what I’m trying to say better than I ever could. This is no exception.

So, bring it home, Fitzgerald!

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.” 

To courage, love, joy, second chances, and the opportunity to live another year.

Love, Kelley