A few too many chai tea lattes later, I made it to twenty years old. Who am I kidding, there is no such thing as too many chai tea lattes.

My elders always told me that the older you get, the less fun your birthdays are. Although by twentieth birthday won’t be filled with sugar, glitter and rainbows like it used to be (honestly miss this), I feel as if birthdays have gotten more meaningful as the years go on. I am finally at a point where I can reflect on my last twenty years, which can be rather frightening yet encouraging.

Yes, I know I am young. You middle-aged folks reading this are probably thinking, “She has nothing to reflect on!”

Oh, but I do, my friends.

It took me twenty years to realize:

• That you could be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world and there will still be someone who doesn’t like peaches.
• The amount of love received from the Lord is unfathomable.
• Life shrinks or expands based on one’s courage
• It is so much more effective to pray about someone rather than talk about them
• To do everything with so much love that you couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.
• God may not paint it across the sky, but He will write it in your heart.
• Pretty and witty make the perfect pair
• Yesterday’s eyeliner can be today’s smokey eye.
• Why be moody when you can shake your booty?
• Drink some coffee and pretend you know what you are doing.
• The larger you are, the more there is to love.
• Grace is freely available for everyone.
• All good writing begins with terrible first efforts (sorry, you guys have been troopers dealing with this concept in regards to my writing over the years).
• On my best day, I need God as desperately as I did on my worst day.
• You can never be overdressed or overeducated
• All disputes can be settled with a cup of tea
• That my eyebrows would be this important.
• To step forward with grit anchored in grace
• His grace changes everything.

For a split-second I thought that it was pretty discouraging to know that it took me a whole, whopping twenty years to realize some of the simplest ideals. But I am so overwhelmingly thankful that it didn’t take me longer to come to terms with some of these topics. If I can accomplish this much in twenty years, what can I do in the next twenty? Watch out world.

In the next twenty years, I hope to:

• Go on more runs- not just for coffee
• Never give up, because the universe loves a stubborn heart
• Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people, a heart that forgives the worst, a mind that forgets the bad and soul that never loses faith in God.
• Walk in New York, hand in hand with the bag I love.
• Be a leader in my field
• Cherry pick my battles
• Never lose a sense of curiosity
• Let my imagination run away with me
• Fall more and more deeply in love with the Lord

Cheers to future lessons learned, everlasting love and celebratory Starbucks runs.

*Clink*

xoxo