It’s hard to believe that it will be 2020 in just over a week. I still feel like the 90’s were 10 years ago. But the decade from 2010–2019 has been one of remarkable change for me. My life today looks virtually nothing like the life I was living on January 1, 2010.
I was married to a different husband then, living in a different house in another state. I had a yellow Labrador retriever who has since passed away, but back then she was full of youthful energy. I had a whole different set of in-laws and largely a different set of friends. I was still in law school, hadn’t yet sat for a bar exam, and had so much to learn about being a lawyer. I hadn’t yet become a mother, and I hadn’t lost my father, or several of my uncles. I hadn’t begun the process of searching for my biological family.
On New Year’s Day, 2010, I could not have imagined what my life would look like now. Changes happen one at a time, day by day, and it is a bit jarring to realize just how many huge life changes I’ve experienced over the last ten years. Some of them were really hard, and some were exciting. They’ve all allowed me to grow as a person and brought me to where I am today. Considering ten years’ worth of life changes in the aggregate shows just how resilient we humans are. It’s a fact of life that nothing stays the same, but I’ve managed to keep going through all the big and small changes, and I’ve mostly thrived. I think that’s something to celebrate.
If you’re reading this and aren’t happy with your life right now, rest assured: you could be living a totally different life in 2029. It doesn’t even have to take a decade. One or two big decisions could transform your life in just a year. It’s never too early or too late to build the life you want for yourself.
I’m most proud of how much I’ve matured emotionally and spiritually over the last ten years. I’ve had some incredible teachers along the way. I’ve worked with two therapists, one near the beginning of the decade and one near the end. Both of them opened my eyes to aspects of myself that I hadn’t seen before and gave me tools to better manage life’s ups and downs. I’ve made a number of great friends who introduced me to new experiences, and I’ve met people who encouraged me to view things from new perspectives. I’ve traveled to awe-inspiring places and pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. Rather than slipping into bitterness and cynicism, I’ve allowed the difficult times to make me less judgmental and more empathetic. I’ve developed a strong sense of my own worth while at the same time shedding some arrogance. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I do not know. While I value objective truth, I also know that there can be many valid answers to certain questions.
I don’t know what my life will look like ten years from now, although I have a vision for it, and I’m already working on making that vision a reality. I hope that the way I spend my time will better align with my values. That is perhaps my biggest goal for the next decade: to build a life in which I have greater control over my schedule and tasks so that I can spend my limited time on earth doing the things that are most important and fulfilling to me.
What big changes have you experienced over the past decade? What lessons have you learned, and what do you hope the next decade will bring? Tell us in the comments.
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