As a countdown to my 30th birthday on March 18, I’ve committed to offering 30 people, things and experiences I want to celebrate from the last 30 years. Grab a piece of cake and enjoy reading!
You know how every kid imagines growing up, having a beautiful wedding and starting a family in a country home behind a white picket fence?
Yeah, me neither. A product of the 80s, I always imagined myself in power suits with shoulder pads and I entirely neglected to picture the living/partner/family arrangements.
Which is why I was TOTALLY surprised by how much I enjoy owning a home. Granted, it’s a West Philadelphia (born and raised) row, but it’s a really nice row in a really nice part of West Philly.
I guess I somehow assumed owning a home would feel like renting a home, just with a slightly increased sense of commitment and with the knowledge that the money paid each month is building equity. Rather cognitive, I know. I actually thought it might feel like a burden, what with my subtle commitment phobias.
Instead, it feels liberating. Joyful. I’m excited to pay the mortgage each month (which, by the way, is how I experience paying taxes in my business) – it feels like a blessing and like success! It also feels settled, in a really nice way. Not settled-stuck, just settled. Which is yet another thing to add to the list of I-didn’t-think-I’d-have-this-in-my-20s items.
Home ownership is one of the more recent experiences I’m celebrating from the first 30 years. As a matter of fact, we decided to put an offer on the house on the very day of my 29th birthday. I can still feel the excitement buzzing between me and Scott. In any event, it’s a biggie. It feels like one of the few rites of passages we have in this country and therefore played a significant role in ushering in what I alluded to at the start of this series – a new, truer form of adulthood.
Which I’m increasingly growing to like.
(Ummm, it turns out the roof had a leak and the ceiling was moments away from falling; hence the need to drill holes.)
