Beyond 30: The Next Chapters

There is a difference between accepting criticism and being self critical. One requires you to internalize another person's opinions and actively take those ideas into consideration. Is this something I believe to be true? Is this something that I can or should work on? The other requires you to measure progress by whatever self-imposed standards are in place, forcing you into the headspace of self improvement by your own judgements. While both are good to practice, it's arguably true that criticism from others is likely a better threshold by which to compare one's own growth. You are your own worst critic, right? And at least in my experience, our biggest blind spots in life tend to be about ourselves, our own shortcomings. Self criticism also requires a measure of honesty about what you're trying to accomplish. It's not fair to judge yourself based on outrageous guidelines. E.G. " I better be a successful millionaire by the time I'm thirty or my life will...

Last weekend, riding on the landslide of feeling stressed out, directionless, and altogether a Picasso-like version of myself, practically unrecognizable in my worry, I took a last minute road trip with my mother and my aunt to my pseudo hometown: St. Joseph, Missouri. Though I was born in the "Show Me" state, I have never considered myself anything other than a Colorado native having moved here when I was three years old. Going back to my "hometown" felt less like going home and more like traveling through the lens of possibility. Who would I have I become if I'd grown up there instead of in Loveland? It was my mother's 35th high school reunion, a foray into reminiscing about her life before losing her mom (my grandma), long before marrying her now husband, a couple of short years prior to marrying too young to my biological father, and looking back on how time and people and life changes you.** Nostalgia has a way of coloring your old life in golden ...