Celebrating 30!
I’m not afraid of turning 30, of time passed, of not being where I want to be.
I am happy to celebrate and share the life lessons I have learned from 30 years here on earth.
I’ll share a lesson/story for the next 30 days counting down to my 30th birthday! Let’s go!
30 days to 30…
I will hit topics like family, love, gratitude, failure, defining success, change, mindset, and mental health to name just a few! Laugh with me, cry with me—but more than that let’s celebrate life!
1 day left: HOPE
Hope is one of those things you take for granted until it doesn’t exist for you anymore. I find that hope is tied to several things. When someone says they don’t have hope or the situation is hopeless, what they are really saying is they have lost the...
Day 2: BEING PRESENT
Even just a couple of years ago I would have spent my birthday drinking to a stupor. Mostly because I would have spent the days leading up to it studying for finals of some sort. It was a vicious cycle of a stressful event and then convincing myself that this was the...
Day 3: HAPPINESS
What have I learned about happiness in 30 years? That it is not fixed, but that it is something that you should be constantly striving for. I don’t negate the times in my life when I have struggled and they have taught me something, because it makes the good times...
Day 4: LOVE
Have I ever been “in love”? No (Oh geez, I swear I’m not Josie Geller from Never Been Kissed) See my post on vulnerability for more. But for me for a very long time I feared that opening myself up to someone, sharing my life, letting someone in was just an...
Day 5: JUDGMENT
"I have probably judged you. You read that right. If you’re honest, you’ve likely judged me too. It’s human nature to take all the information we are sensing and receiving and form an instant opinion based on where it fits in with our worldview. I will...
Day 6: GUILT AND SHAME
This is something I struggle with a lot. Something I am consistently working on. I feel guilty for everything...lots of things I cannot control. Guilty for things others do. I carry the burden of guilt and it is so incredibly destructive. This is probably the...
Day 7: RELEASE
You want to know the honest truth. I don’t feel like writing this today. It’s been an emotionally draining day and week. But I made a commitment to myself to do this. So today is about letting go—release. I’m choosing to let go of control of situations...
Day 8: FEELING LIKE AN IMPOSTER
Do you struggle with feeling like an imposter? Like no matter what you do, you aren’t qualified, you shouldn’t be there, you don’t belong? I feel you. Maybe you did like I did and you followed others/societal advice to go to college, get a job—do the...
Day 9: BEING CHALLENGED AND UNCOMFORTABLE
I am a creature of comfort. I have to push myself to avoid days in...binging on a TV show. I am just fine staying in my little bubble. But you know when I think of the best memories I have had in the past couple of years—I haven’t thought, “you know I really...
Day 10: Boundaries
This includes stopping people-pleasing and learning to set boundaries with work, men and others. I have struggled with this for a long time. I am afraid to be mean, to upset someone, to voice my opinion. This goes straight back to childhood of wanting to be...
Day 11: COURAGE
“You’re brave” they said when I left medicine. That was bold. That took courage. Perhaps those were veiled ways to say “You are one crazy chick! No one leaves a career they have worked this hard for, paid that much for, on and on…” But hey let’s dissect that....
Day 12: FRIENDSHIPS
Have you heard the saying that friends are the family we choose? I absolutely believe this and think that our friend groups say a lot about who we are at different stages in our lives and where we are likely to go. I have been blessed to have friends that...
Day 13: BODY-IMAGE AND CONFIDENCE
I never valued my looks. In all honesty, my self-worth was based on my academic prowess, not on my ability to garner a catcall. This would be some typical self-talk “well your body might not be banging but you’re smart.” Like hello, why did I feel like I couldn’t be...
Day 14: PRIVILEGE
Often in political discourse, I have seen people complain about how something isn’t fair. “Why should I pay for that?” “Why should this group of people be getting access to that?”... on and on. I will be completely honest in saying that for the first 20 something...
Day 15: NATURE
For those who don’t spend time in nature...I highly recommend it. Nature has such a restorative and therapeutic power. The most at peace I have ever been in my life was when I was on vacation in Colombia, walking alone in nature. It is in these moments of...
Day 16: GRATITUDE
I would say that intentionally practicing gratitude is the number one thing that has significantly changed my life since leaving medicine. Waking up each day and choosing to look at the good, to express appreciation for the many amazing things in my life has...
Day 17: FEAR
I used to operate almost entirely out of FEAR. I still do at times. But having the awareness that I am making decisions based out of fear helps me to turn things around. I no longer want to do something because I am afraid of the consequences if I don’t. That...
Day 18: ADDICTION
30 years in and around addiction has taught me that this is a struggle and failure of society and systems, an inability of individuals to cope with difficulties around them and an increased stigmatization that drives the secrecy and seeking out of whatever the...
Day 19: EDUCATION AND LEARNING
In my 30 years, I have spent approximately 23 years in formal education. I have 3 degrees, one in biology, one in psychology and the last in medicine. I was always a nerdy kid, with books, stationery, and school craft projects galore. I prided myself on my academic...
Day 20: INTUITION
My intuition actually provides greater clarity to me than I could have imagined if I will just slow myself enough to trust and listen to it. In hindsight, I never knew how much I navigated by intuition. I just never called it that. Some looked at my academic...
Day 21: HUMILITY
I used to be so proud, run by ego. Regardless of whether it seemed like it, I was motivated by status, success and other’s approval of me. I feared rejection. I feared being perceived as less than, unintelligent or lazy. Since leaving my job in medicine, I...
Day 22: EXPERIENCING JOY
Experiencing joy, being happy, just being completely content with who I am and where I am going is so important to me now. I used to deprive myself of joy. I guess I didn’t feel worthy, I guilted myself into feeling like I needed to be doing something else to move...
Day 23: FREEDOM
For most of my 30 years, I have taken my freedom for granted. I was “proud to be American,” but I never truly understood what freedoms I was afforded due to my nationality. Traveling has opened my eyes wide to the injustices in this world. It has also opened...
Day 24: FAILURE
I have failed many times in my life. But I am not a failure. Just as I have done many intelligent things in my life, but I am working to decouple my identity as someone “intelligent.” Why? For me it breeds laziness, it feeds my ego, and it also causes despair when I...
Day 25: VULNERABILITY
I was afraid to let people in. I was afraid of being judged. In all honesty, I still fight this battle of being closed off versus forcing myself to be open and vulnerable with the world. Vulnerability to me has always meant discomfort. I didn’t want to be rejected...
Day 26: DEFINING SUCCESS
I used to define success almost entirely by career status. “I will be successful when I am working in my field, well-respected, well-paid, etc.” It was about status, earning potential, and academic honors for me. I found that once you are no longer “on top,” you...
Day 27: MENTAL HEALTH
I used to take my mental health for granted, until it wasn’t in such great shape. I think often we take things for granted until they are gone. It wasn’t that my happiness just all of a sudden disappeared one day. I was generally quite a happy kid, but over...
Day 28: FINANCES
My relationship with money is an ever-changing thing. Growing up I never went without, and my family didn’t spend money carelessly, but I also never truly learned the value of a dollar or how to budget. Working for your own money is one of the most...
Day 29: FAMILY
For me, this still refers to my mom, dad, and siblings. I realize for others my age this could mean a family of their own. I let go of the societal expectation of me starting my own family somewhere around age 26 or 27, when I basically started...
Day 30: Change
I used to fear CHANGE—as a product of wanting to retain control over everything in my life. In the past 3 years I have experienced more change, and as a byproduct more growth than I could have ever imagined. My career has changed. My body has changed. My group of...
Current Location
Medellín, Colombia
Contact
hey@breakawaybabes.com