Hi, I'm 30

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

Wanna know something? I'm 30. I'm a 1985 baby. I have lived 3 entire decades. 

For a long time in my life, 'Louise is 25 again' became a bit of a running joke. I became fixated on not ageing and not entering the (what I thought to be) dreaded 30's. I was afraid that I would be considered old or that I would act boring or that I would be thrown out to pasture whilst all the 20-somethings danced wildly into the night and jetted round the world being big hot shots.

(I took a screengrab of a gif set from Tumblr which I think was taken from Alfie's recent vlog. It's not great quality but it captures the moment the wonderful people at Google surprised me with a giant pink sparkle cake. AMAZING!!)

I felt like this all the way up until last week. My plan was to not mention my age and I'd briefed my friends that if I saw so much of as whisper of the word, 'thirty', on twitter, I'd castrate them. Jack very kindly stuck to his word. Instead he just posted an awful selfie of me but that's another story. 

When I look back to my actual 25th birthday, I was working in a dead end office job with a hobby blog and about 7 youtube videos, my wedding was weeks away and little did I know it but I had about 5 weeks until I fell pregnant with Darcy. If you'd have asked me then, 'How will you spend your 30th?', I'd have thought very differently to it's reality. 

Life doesn't always stick to it's plan. Sometimes stuff works and it's great, sometimes things exceed your expectations and they're incredible (Darcy and Sprinkle of Glitter please and thank you) and then sometimes, things don't work out. In those things you have to make a choice. Will you mope about or will you accept and adapt? 

My 30th wasn't what I had envisaged. I thought I would be having a sweet family day with a Husband and maybe 2 or 3 children but instead, I had a different type of amazing day. 

I spent it with some (although sadly not all) of my closest friends at Google HQ in NYC, listening to inspiring talks from other creators as well as watching performances and shows from artists, musicians, singers and magicians. I was presented with a giant pink sparkly birthday cake, sung happy birthday to by a huge room of people, partied, dined, skipped about, and all round treated like a total princess. Even when your original plan doesn't come to light, it doesn't mean there isn't room for other amazingness. 

And so here I am, fine with being 30. I don't feel old or 'past it'. I feel motivated to enjoy this new decade as much as the last and to redefine my life plan. My twenties were so good to me, better than I could have hoped, so if my thirties follow suit, I'm going to be a really happy 40 year old in 10 years time!

Here's to all the wonderful 30-somethings out there who are laughing at themselves for being so afraid to leave their twenties. Silly us!

Toodlepip!

xx