I think a common misconception is that the things that make us unique or special are unchanging. That they are aspects of our personality or quirks that someone from high school could recognize at your 20 year reunion. The truth is that so much of us continues to change past our initial formative years. The question is if we are going to change intentionally or just going to let life shift us until we look up one day and realize how different we are. Here are a few big changes I’ve experienced over the last 1, 5, and 10 years… 

A few ways I’ve changed in the past year:

*Where I live! It is crazy to think we haven’t been in our current house a full year yet. While I still miss our old backyard, we are making progress on our new one little by little and I am so thankful for our time here and my mountain view each morning!
*Saying yes to a marathon– absolutely NOT on my radar at all a year ago. And a year from now I’m hoping one change I can list is “I became a marathoner” but that still seems very big and impossible at the moment…
*Allowing myself to make plans again further than a month out- though this is still not easy.
*Feeling called to put more values into action (bye bye amazon prime, hello local coffee shops over Starbucks whenever I don’t have to rush through a drive thru) Getting serious about setting boundaries. Learning how to let more people in again amid navigating those boundaries.

A few ways  I’ve changed in the past 5 years:
*We added another kid! So that’s huge.
* I started RUNNING! I definitely was not a runner 5 years ago. It took the physical trauma of my second pregnancy to start looking at my body differently.
*My marriage is better because I let go of perfect and started speaking up more for what I need and when I feel totally overwhelmed or stressed.
*I read a lot more. I was so burned out after grad school on reading that it took a while to find the pleasure in it again, then once I started making time for it I started reading a LOT.
*I gave up trying to do the kind of “Pinterest mom” activities I hated and I gave up apologizing for the “Pinterest mom” or “basic” activities that I truly love.
*Went from being one of only a few friends to have kids (especially more than one kid), to being in a position where most of my friends have kids which has been a really interesting shift.
*I moved from mostly acting to mostly directing or writing to accommodate family schedules and better plan our artistic endeavors. I really miss acting sometimes but I am SO happy with this other aspect of my creativity that I really sold short for years and years, and it makes it even sweeter when I get to return to the stage.

How I’ve changed in the past TEN years:
*I became a recovering perfectionist instead of a full fledged perfectionist monster of spiraling into chaos and destroying my mental and physical health because good enough was never good enough.
*I started a blog and have been stunningly consistent! I’ve had other writing gigs come and go over the last decade but I’ve committed to expressing myself here on this platform for over 7 years and I’m really proud of that.
*I became a MOM. Seriously the biggest life change and so many ups and downs to go with that.
*I became a wife! We are celebrating our ten year anniversary in May and I can’t believe it, but as of now this was still an event within the last ten years.
*I moved back across the country to the place where I grew up and suddenly realized a lot of natural beauty in a place I wanted to escape before.
*I traveled to Italy
*I met close friends, reconnected with other friends, became even closer with some of my best friends, and lost or drifted apart from other friends I thought I’d always be close to.
*SO SO SO MUCH MORE. Way more bullet points than could be contained in a reasonable blog post. But you get the picture. I am so curious about what other changes are in store over the next ten years.

What are the biggest changes you’ve found about yourself in the last year, 5 years, or 10 years? Were any of them met with resistance- either from your self or those around you?