I just need Morgan Freeman to narrate my whole life.  All he has to do is call me and I will set up everything!

My 30th year has been….interesting to say the least.  There have been a lot of odd moments…. a lot of trying moments, a lot of stress, some moments that were utterly depressing.

But there have also been some really great moments.  And since I have a tendency to be kind of (read: very) pessimistic, some of those great moments get overshadowed by the stressful and depressing moments.

So, to celebrate my birthday I’ve decided to share 5 of the best moments of my 30th year and not dwell on the crappy things.

5. My New Car!  I realize that probably sounds incredibly superficial, but I spent the better part of four years in two cars: one of which I just needed and one of which I hated after awhile.  The fact that I finally have a car that is not only spacious and reliable, but that I love is something that I am really happy about.  I’ll have this car for years, it’ll hold car seats one day; so yeah this is one of the things that made me happy this year.

4. Our final graduating class:  Yes, this had some sadness with it.  Our last graduation ceremony was filled with tears and emotions, but there were two amazing moments for me.  The first was the military surprise for our salutatorian.  I’ve never seen one in person and may never again, but to see her Dad appear from backstage with her diploma in hand when she thought he wasn’t going to make it home was one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my life and I will never forget that moment with her.  That and seeing these young women that I’ve known for so long graduate and ready to move on to the next chapter was just a joy for me; even amidst the tears and emotions, I’m so happy I got to see these young women grow and I am extremely proud of all of them.

3. Deepening friendships.  As hard as this year was, I am extremely grateful for my friends who have been amazingly supportive.  I’m also really grateful for the co-workers that have become friends this year.  As a group, we had to deal with a lot of hard situations (most notably our school closing) together and it drew a lot of us closer together.  You noticed who really had your back and who was willing to be there for you when you needed them.  One of these people, my friend Tiffani, was already a good friend of mine, but she actually started working at my school this past year (so she’d only been a Keough teacher for two months before hearing about the closing) so we got to spend a lot of time together (pretty much every single day) and through she became very special to me, so special that she’s one of my bridesmaids:

I just love and appreciate her so much; she’s been an absolutely amazing friend to me and I hope I’m as good of one to her.

2. My new job! Obviously.  I think I’ve gone on and on about this one recently, so I’m not going to gush too much about it here, but I’m so excited to have such a great place to go starting next week.  I actually just got our schedule for orientations and holy crap I’m going to be busy the next couple weeks, but it’s all good.  I look forward to many years at my new school.

1. We’re Engaged! To no one’s surprise this is my favorite moment of the year.  It’s pretty hard to top this one for anything.  Probably the next thing that will “top” it will be our wedding.  It was so simple; not a huge to-do which so many engagements are these days, and it was absolutely perfect.  I still occasionally just look at my ring and love that it’s there and just love that it was given to me by my best friend.  I can’t wait to go into the next chapter of our lives together.

So, this may have been a pretty trying year in many ways; there have also been quite a few good things that have happened that have tried to balance out the crappy stuff.

Here is hoping that the 31st year has even more good than bad.

Happy Birthday to me!!!