When I turned 30 I half expected something horrible terrible bad to happen the moment the clock hit the official time of my birth. What was it going to be? Instant Lactose intolerance? My hair falling out, my spleen shriveling up? Something was going to happen, what good could possibly come of it?

Nothing has quite worked out as I had planned in my life...close, but not quite. I finally lost weight and reached my goal when I was 27, but then I got married and got pregnant, and got mad cravings for pie and Jello pudding pops. I finally had a family! A sweet baby boy, a husband who...wait, cheats on me with a younger girl and ditches me and our one year old son?

That totally was not how it was supposed to work. How could turning 30 be any different? And I was right. Something big did happen, but it was not terrible horrible bad at all.

As I sat there doing a mental check of my body and evaluating myself I realized I was fine. I was perfect in fact! For once in my life, I was fine, just as I was, with nothing needing to change, nothing wrong. And I realized that it was not a change in me, but a change in my perspective of me.

I always had been fine, just as I was, I just did not understand that - until that very moment, when I turned 30.

So what I have crazy hair, and extra 40 pounds and ashy elbows? And so things do not always turn out as planned. Sometimes the unplanned things turn out to be the most valuable moments in life anyway. I do not have to let me life revolve around others expectations, others values and others perspectives.

Sure, living in this culture, there will always be things that I will have to face and fight the self-consciousness that creeps in from time to time. But the knowledge that I am OK, no matter what others think of me was revolutionary.

It's weird, logically I could have told you that anytime in my life, but it never sank in till that moment. I am 31 now, and still work hard to keep this perspective on life, and to apply it to all aspects, including my perspective of others.

It is not always easy, but I will always remember my 30th birthday, and the wealth of wisdom I found inside myself. Let’s hope my 40th can be even better! Even if I do get struck with instant lactose intolerance, or age spots that look like Elvis.