On December 24th I turned 30. I know, the big 3-0. Safe to say, for the whole month of December, leading to the big change, my emotional status was like a rollercoaster on crack. I cried, I laughed, I was desperate, I was hopeful, I was in despair, I was joyous. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? No, as the meme goes, easy peasy lemon difficult.

You see, when I was 24 or 25 ( back in the olden days), I imagined myself turning 30 on a sandy, tropical beach, along side my faithful, loving partner, maybe a kid or two around, the picture perfect life in the picture perfect scenery. What I got was no faithful, loving partner, no kids, no scenery and no sandy beach. Expectations 1- Maria 0.

Having to choose between being even more depressed and floopy in the privacy of my own home and actually doing something that would lift my spirits up, I chose the latter. I booked myself a park view room at the Radisson Blu in Brașov, from the 23rd to the 24th, so I could wake up on the morning of my birthday in a five star hotel. I also invited my friends to a celebratory drink that evening, so it would be easy to arrive at the bar from the hotel.

The initial plan was to meet them in a bar near the hotel, so I can arrive easily and safely. But the weather forecast had other plans. Starting from the evening of the 22nd, it snowed. That is an understatement. We have several blizzards mixed with sunny periods or windy periods. It was a blast. I asked my dad to come with me to the hotel to check in and then I asked a close friend to join me for lunch at the hotel restaurant, before going to the bar. Safe to say, I was scared to go out, as the snow layer was getting thicker and thicker by the minute, and the risk of slipping was increasing exponentially. I was thorn between canceling the night out, facing the blizzard and asking my friends to come meet me in the hotel lobby for the celebration.

After realizing that they are some of the closest and dearest people in my life and that they will never judge, I asked them to come to the hotel. They instantly accepted, no question asked, no judgements or second guessing my options. The doubt was, just as most of the time, just in my head.

Some of them arrived as I was still in my room, they called and told my friend and I to come to the fourth floor, where the sky lounge was located. As it turned out, they told the hotel staff that it was a special event and they offered us the privacy of that lounge. They waited for me with the cutest cake and the warmest smiles. I’m not gonna go into much detail, depicting all the events of the evening, but safe to say, it was one of the best birthdays I had spent with them. It was flawless and effortless, full of laughter and conversation, a birthday only fit for people in their 30s who, as Joey once said, want to spend time in a quiet place and talk to their friends.

In the morning, after waking up, taking a relaxing five star hotel shower and enjoying the heated floor in the bathroom, I orders some breakfast in my room and enjoyed the snowy view of the park. I had ticked off all three wishes on the bucket list for this birthday: I ate something from the mini bar, I ordered room service and I charged something on the room. It may seem small or insignificant or useless, but it felt pretty good to do it.

Moreover, as I spent the evening at my parents’ house to celebrate with the family and some close family friends, it was all so smooth and nice and pleasant, that I surprised myself feeling so happy. I was expecting to feel blue and irritated and dissatisfied but, au contraire, it felt perfect.

This year was a whirlpool of events, feelings and thoughts: I cried a lot, I felt desperate, I had some physiological incidents that I may, once their memory is not so fresh and stingy, disclose, I had some minor accidents and I wished for it to be over maybe one too many times. But, as life goes, the Universe helped me along the way and, especially during the days I depicted in this post, I never felt more loved, understood, appreciated, supported, special and at peace.

I’m sure that everything happens for a reason and maybe if I were to have gone on that exotic trip with the perfect partner and the well-behaved kids, I wouldn’t have felt so good. All in all, I learned that, as I released myself from expectations and I freed myself from the plan and understood that I can change it last minute and still have a good time, life offered me the ultimate gift: peace of mind, gratitude and a sense of ease.

So, as the song goes, with a little help from my friends, family and parents and a leap of faith, I got to enjoy two awesome birthday celebration days, which turned out amazing. And FYI, I’ve been 30 for two weeks and the world still turns, the Sun sets and rises and I am pretty much the same, only some extra lessons learned.