Recklessly Thirty

If you look up the word empowerment in the dictionary you'll see the meaning to be "to give power or authority to; to enable or permit ". Lately, with everything I have going on in my life, it doesn't take more than a few words from someone's mouth to get me down or put negative thoughts into my head. Months and many posts ago, I introduced y'all to a woman that I became friends with through blogging. We called this our bloggership . This is a woman who has a serious talent for writing that I look up to from all the way across the country. Thankfully, when I was given a handful of opportunities recently to write more than ever and to be treated like a writer, some people had opinions and not all of them were good. We are our own worst critic right? I love writing, but I'm nowhere near perfect. I just enjoy doing it and hopefully I give a hint of entertainment at the same time. There's always that one word though that can creep into our heads as wri...

I take Dolly Parton outside on a Sunday evening as the sun is setting. It's a cold chill in late April that when the wind blows it has a soft bite like fall. I close my eyes and I'm taken back to a rainy March morning, a little over 2 years ago, when I first moved home. When the thought of being back in Ohio filled my entire body with rage and despair all at once. I listen to the cars on the other side of my condo on a busy street as they pass and the ones on the highway at the back of my complex. The rest of my surrounding is silent with the exception of a couple geese flying overhead. Suddenly I realize, being home hasn't been the worst like I thought it would... but am I happy enough? I moved home from a place I thought I'd never leave. From a city where I met the man who I thought was the love of my life. I call it my "southern comfort zone" because that's exactly how I still feel about it. Living in Murfreesboro was one of the most exciting,...

None of this can be denied. Sometimes we travel to places that don't have such profound beauty because we have to. Because we have to might make things uncomfortable. Hell, sitting on a plane for a dozen hours is uncomfortable enough. Sometimes it hurts like hell to leave the ones behind that you grew to love in the place that you were. Maybe you took a getaway to heal your broken self and the heartbreak sat with you in a hotel room while you prayed for it to go away.  This quote hit me hard when I read it because experiencing all of these things has changed me and made me better and ready to face the next challenge of an adventure that life throws to me. I crave more of the lessons to learn from everything this world has to offer me! 

When I started my blog just a couple years ago, I wrote up a list of things to do/complete before I turned 30 years old. While some of the things I added to my list were easy enough and others unattainable at the time being, I was only just a short 3 years from turning 30, not giving me much time to really fulfill all of my goals. Besides, writing up the list was probably done quicker than I should have allowed. Now that I'm 30 and I've updated you on how much of that list I have completed and I have really taken a look at what I haven't done, I am giving you my list of 40 things to do before I reach the age of 40. You can call this a bucket list, you can call it long or short term goals. Whatever you call it, I just want to put it out there that I am making plans to reach all of these as best as I can! 10 Years to get to it... Here we go... 1) Read 1 book a month or as much as possible 2) Visit 40 US states (28/30) 3) Go horseback riding 4) Continue writing this bl...