I Swear I Lived.

Tomorrow is my 28th Birthday. To prepare for this post, I looked at some of my old "birthday blog posts". It was fun to look back and read how much things have shifted over the years, and what my birthday has meant to me.

Here's what I wrote last year:

I'm going to make 27 amazing. It's my only chance to be this age. I have to make an impression. I can't let time waste around me. I have to live every day as if I do not have a tomorrow. I don't want to watch life pass me. I want to be part of it. And no one is going to stop me.

So, how did I do? How did I live my 27th year on this earth? If someone were to sit down and really ask me if I felt I lived up to the expectation I set at this time last year, I would have to say...

Yes.

I am certainly not perfect. I haven't lived EVERY single day as the best person I can be. But I certainly tried. Despite the crushing challenge of my dad's cancer, the ups and downs (and in between) of my weight loss journey, and everything else that came my way, I still feel better than I've ever felt before. I took a lot of chances at the age of 27- in life, in my career, with the weight loss... and all of those chances have turned out to serve me well. I didn't let time waste- although working out is a top priority and that has caused a bit of a downfall in my social life, I said "yes" this year to more than I ever have before.

Rereading that, it sounds like I'm pretty full of myself. I'm not. I'm just proud. And until recent years, I had never known what it felt like to be truly proud of myself. It's a pretty great feeling. It's a feeling I hope everyone has. Because guess what? Despite your challenges, despite everything that tries to break you, you're still here. You're still making it through every day. That is something to be proud of.

The biggest change in me is that I no longer view my birthday as a fun day where I get Facebook comments or texts. It's not about partying or presents or cards. My birthday is about celebrating the fact that I have been blessed with another year of life. Life is precious, at any given moment it could be taken away. But here I am, fully living, healthier than I've ever been, head over heels in love. And if I'm lucky, I'll get to do this for another year. And another. And many, many more to come.

I am ecstatic to be so lucky as to have another birthday. My 28th year is bound to be beautiful. Without a doubt, there will be more challenges, more hurdles. But Lucky for me, I've built up the strength, bravery, and confidence to overcome them.

Cheers to 28. Cheers to living and embracing life, no matter how hard it may be sometimes.