What I Learned On My 30th Birthday
Published January 18th, 2008It has been a busy year. Many interesting things have taken place in my life, both great and less than great…but I definitely have grown (in spirit–not in height). As my 30th birthday approached, I felt stressed about the amount of filing and shredding that had piled up in my drawers. I had previously been fastidious about this, doing it every month, but somehow saving everything important and stuffing it into the drawers of the butcher-block table seemed like the easiest thing to do with everything that was going on.
The problem is that I don’t normally let those types of things get out of hand. In reality, it wasn’t that out of control since everything was in one place, and I have a filing system and paper shredder. I knew that once I got going, it would be fine–but the mental burden of having this disorganized mess hiding in the drawers had become too much. I resolved to take care of it before my birthday so I could start another year off with an uncluttered life.
Just to give you a bit of background, my husband and I have been together for several years now, but only got married a year-and-a-half ago. There was a box of old documents and financial statements from before my time that he needed to shred in the basement–so I figured what the hell–might as well do that while I’m at it too.
So I set up for this big job. I cleared off the dining room table, brought in a couple of recycle bins from the garage, brought down the accordion folders for the bills and documents to be filed, found a garbage bag, and set up the paper shredder.
Although I was hunched over the paper shredder for many hours, there was something oddly therapeutic about it. It felt good to finally get rid of the excess weight, but something else happened too: As I took quick look at every sheet before shredding it, I saw my husband’s life in a different way than before. He used to race mountain bikes and motocross. We met out of a mutual love of mountain biking. I had enjoyed the sport on a much different level, and met him long after his racing days had ended. I saw credit card statements for thousands of dollars of bike parts, hotels, and restaurants in the mountains of Quebec and British Columbia from close to 10 years ago. I think about what a different life he must have lead. Then I came to the section of old documents from his bike business (I was around for that before he closed it to go back to school). I remember all of the long hours, struggles, and good times we had while setting up and running the business.
Shredding those old documents made me appreciate my husband even more, for the experiences that he has undergone, and that he had willingly moved on from that stage in his life to where he is now. He is a patient person, who just isn’t scared of roller coasters or other death defying, adrenaline pumping activities, and now I finally think I understand why: Why would he be afraid of a perfectly safe roller coaster when he willingly threw himself off the side of a mountain as quickly as possible to win a race?! He’s a great person, and I wonder where he will go next on his personal journey. One of the main reasons he went back to school, was so that we could both have careers where we could live and work anywhere in the world. I wonder what the future will bring us….we are both really looking forward to our trip to the Galapagos Islands this fall. I’m sure it will be a life changing experience.
As this task continued, I came to the pile of thank you cards and various greeting cards from my clients, friends, and family from the last year. I read through them sometimes when I need inspiration or encouragement. I am by no means a pack rat, but I keep all of the meaningful cards that are given to me. I have a special box for them. One day I hope to get my act together and make scrapbooks to properly display and preserve them.
The way I was raised, birthdays and milestones were celebrated with a party, but no one made that big of a deal of the day itself. I’m pretty sure that no earth-moving change happened between my 365th day of being 29 and the day I turned 30, so instead think about how much things have changed in the big picture, and where they are going.
I’m glad I forced myself to sit down and tackle the filing and shredding. I feel like a weight has been lifted. I see 2 large recycle boxes full of shredded paper and think that I did good. Without even knowing it, I had a chance to reflect on the past and caught a glimpse into the future. What a commercial this would make for home paper shredders!
I don’t really look at this birthday like I’m getting another year older, or that I’m into a new era. Taking a look at the past did help me to see clearly, and appreciate the direction in which I am going. So far, I like what I see.
