29+

Driving back and forth between work, I often listen to NPR.  I almost always learn something new.  It's like opting for a salad instead of a double pounder; sure, I could jam out in the morning, but I prefer the refreshing taste of interesting news.

Tonight, after a longer-than-necessary stop at the grocery store, I heard about Cassie Boorn (cassieboorn.com) (a 22 year old! gasp!) who collected letters written to 20-something selves.  You can read her letter here or read about the project here.  I loved the idea of it, even though I have yet to escape my twenties.  One of my friends calls them the "twenty-stupids" and I think he's very accurate.

Clearly, this is my favorite from Maggie Mason at Mighty Girl:
"Thank you for working so hard to put yourself through school. Thank you for eating potato chips for breakfast while you still can. Thank you for wearing the tight dress. And shut up — your ass looks amazing." 

Nearly six months away from trading up to the next decade, there are things I wish I knew earlier: the taurus was a fine car, rum was never my friend and maybe I should have taken a marketing class or twelve.  But, like Cassie writes - if I had been able to avoid any or all of these mistakes (dude, the credit card debt alone!) then I wouldn't be me now.

And I like me.  Spoiler alert: I like the person I am becoming.  I think once I get to 30 (or 35 or 95) I might still write the letter.  I'm hoping that I make it to 35, liking myself as much as I do now.  All the while retaining the lessons learned (please!).