Don't Let a Slip Become a Slide.

While every birthday is one worth celebrating, there are certainly milestone years that are extra special. Thirteen is the first year as a teenager. Eighteen means your a legal adult that can vote. Twenty-one means being able to buy alcohol...legally, and so on and so forth. It goes on and on (until, you know...), with each year holding a different meaning and significance to everyone. 

Turning twenty-four was a very strange year for me that could only be describe as a limbo year; everything just felt so uncertain. From graduating college to job hunting, to being in a weird place with different friendships, and figuring out my own self and what I wanted from life, I felt like I was going through that awkward stage of puberty all over again (which let's be real, it wasn't fun the first time around). I definitely asked my mother to house me in her womb again, to which I got maaaajor side eye. While I felt happy with the growth and progress I was making in various aspects of my life, it was often plagued by feelings of sadness and anger that I was not further along in life, and all of the emotions that come with a quarter-life crisis. 

But the last year has been a great lesson, and an even bigger turning point for me. I learned the importance of not letting my circumstances define me, and I finally began to come in to my own, realizing what it is I want out of life, who I want in my life, and feeling safe and secure within my own skin. Most importantly, I finally stopped letting insignificant things take so much control over me. Insignificant things such as my weight. Yes, in the past my weight has been an issue when it involved my health, but that's just it, in the past. I used to be absolutely terrified of gaining the weight back, but when I realized recently that I had gained a few pounds this past summer, (I never said my summer diet was the best...) I shrugged it off and went about my merry way. Not because I'm reverting back to old my ways (defffffinitely not), but because I know I won't "let a slip become a slide," and that a few pounds in the grand scheme of things is temporary and mean nothing. They may indicate all of the delicious food I've consumed this summer, but they don't define me or how I feel about myself.

Twenty-five feels like my official entry into adulthood, and already I feel differently, even if my birthday is still days away. Whatever it may bring, I am ready to go in to this next chapter of my life, happy and finally free of the stigma that has plagued me for so long. No matter what the scale or a clothing tag may say, they no longer define me.

 I do.

*original image via.