Queen of Your Own Life

For most of my life, certainly all of my adult years, I have dreaded my birthday. Not like some people pretend to, but really, wholeheartedly, and with fervor wished the day would just pass swiftly and without any notice. Or barring that, if I could just sleep through the entire day and not ever wake up until it had passed, that would be a good secondary option.

This year, however, I’m feeling quite different. I owe that in part to a book I recently read, “Queen of Your Own Life: The Grown-Up Woman’s Guide to Claiming Happiness and Getting the Life You Deserve.” The basic premise is that you are and should be queen of your own life. Yet most of us treat ourselves like Cinderella before she met her fairy godmother. We criticize and rant about what we haven’t achieved, how tired we are, what number the scale says, and never even realize that we are our own worst enemy. Or worse, we realize it and don’t change it.

For some reason, the message of their book struck incredibly close to home and resonated strongly with me. Probably because my birthday is so close and maybe it was just time for me to finally get it. Either way, I’m actually looking forward to my birthday this year and next year I’m going to throw a BIG celebration. That’s my plan… at least for now.

What about you? Are you a birthday dreader like me? Or have you become the queen of your own life?