By the fingernails I tell you

I am hanging on to my twenties by my fingernails. I do not want to let them go. I am going to miss "my twenties". So full of mistakes and trips and falls and wringing of hands... you'd think I'd want to bid them fond farewell and open my arms wide to my thirties, wouldn't you?

Not so.

I am afraid of my thirties. Afraid of not doing all those things that I said I'd do "before I'm thirty". Can I cram them all in in the next two months? Or maybe if I do them by the time I'm 31 I can say I did them "when I was 30".

Goodness I can still remember when I wanted to write a novel by the time I was 20!

So I bring you 20 things I loved about my twenties:

1. Having children when my body still (sorta) bounced back.
2. Reconnecting with the love of my life (read: stalking him back down and roping him for good)
3. Finding two wonderful careers that I loved and figuring out a way to combine them.
4. Learning that it's not all about my opinion.
5. Learning that it's not all about your opinion either.
6. Turning a hobby into a career and finding some great hobbies to replace it.
7. Learning how to manage my own money before I had to manage money with someone. Again.
8. Getting over (sorta) the fact that I didn't get to do the whole "college in my twenties" experience and deciding (definitely) that I'm better for it.
9. Accepting the fact that there is no correlation between who I am and what size of jeans I wear.
10. Learning that I am responsible enough for children... but not responsible enough for a dog.
11. Learning what it truly means to support someone else's dreams when they need you to.
12. Learning how to ask for help.
13. Discovered my faith again.
14. Forgave myself for the mistakes I made as a teenager.
15. Found a husband who has done his own laundry for his entire adult life.
16. Figured out how to accept my friends for who they are and learning how to let the ones go that didn't accept me for who I was.
17. Learned that people will always show you who they are, if you listen and observe.
18. Learned how to trust my gut instinct.
19. Gained control of my temper.
20. Learned how to let go.

Actually, writing out that list has helped me a little... I'm more at peace with watching my twenties go bye-bye when I realize that they have brought me so much and prepared me for my thirties.