So I am officially 34! Yup 34! A number that is so confused between milestones lol! It is not the big 30, neither is it half way before 40. It’s just an even number trying to find its way.  As I woke up on my birthday 30 minutes late after my alarm rang, greeted by my beautiful kids with my traditional birthday breakfast in bed, orchestrated by my husband, I stayed in bed and enjoyed the (no morning chores for one day luxury). Beautiful messages and calls from everyone I love started coming asking me how am I celebrating and wishing me a beautiful birthday. I had a flash back from when I was a teenager, I faced and obstacle every time I wanted to go out with my friends! We always had to have (an adult) with us or else my dad won’t allow me to go out! Convincing my friends’ older siblings at the time to come with us every time was not easy! After all they were in their early 20’s which automatically qualified them to be adults and capable of taking care of my friends and myself!

 It is only normal back then that if I looked up to a 20 something year old as an adult, that I also considered anyone in their thirties basically a senior! LOL.

We were raised that adults are tough, that they know it all, that life got nothing on them! Well they were wrong! here I am 34 years old, a mother of three kids with quite the busy personal and professional life and I still cry every time I watch Lion King! Not just that but I get so emotional when Willy the whale is freed into the ocean, and seriously what is wrong with this scary witch from Snow white with her long nose and weird looking pimple or mole? Shouldn’t I get over these things by now?

True that my stamina for face life was pushed to its strongest limits a few years back when I had to go through a life changing experience with my son, when I faced childhood cancer him, and true that living in a hospital for over three years sucked the life out of me, and true that seeing death so many times so near to me broke me but still! These Disney productions man! Along with my love for my birthday month, my excitement with the candle I blow every year, the fact that I still believe (I really do) in making wishes before blowing birthday candles. These and way more things always find their way to the kid’s heart in me all the time!

I don’t know all the answers! I try my best to answer my kids’ ENDLESS questions, but truth is most of the times I seriously wish there was another “adult” who can just tell me what to do or what to say! Even more, there are days when I feel like I just don’t want to “adult” today!

Looking at my kids I discovered that one can learn a thing (or two) from the younger humans in our lives. Their perspective about life is so raw, pure, innocent and yet so deep! They love life and their understanding to human nature is still not disrupted by the reality of things around them. Last weekend a younger human in my life managed to make me face one of my strongest fears… nature! I have always loved nature, as long as there is a fence or something between us :)! I would enjoy watching a gorgeous scene from a balcony rather than being on the actual ground consumed by my scary thoughts of bugs, animals and the wild life! Such a city girl I know! I only have Cairo to blame for that.

My daughter who is almost 9 going on 19 (pray for me), had a girl scouts camping trip where I accompanied her for the first time in my life. Aside from the tons of dust and bugs I came back home with after this trip, I came back with a beautiful sense of empowerment and many lessons. I was empowered to see how my young human dealt in a new atmosphere, how she rose for the occasion, how she made mistakes and dealt with them, how she had fun and enjoyed every minute of it, how she seriously took in every ounce of life and happiness possible.

I learnt a thing or two! I learnt that no matter how old we get, we should always strive to keep the kid inside us alive, I learnt that learning new things has no expiration date or age limit, I learnt that the adult in us needs the kid in us more than the other way around. I learnt that we change, and that is ok!

So today I urge you to celebrate yourself, to look around and find inspiration in the younger humans in your life, to blow a candle for your birthday and do something nice for YOU! To appreciate all your blessings and find the silver lining in any hardship you face as much as you physically and mentally can.

It is worth it! You are worth it! 🙂