YIKES!

Today, I turned 40.  Talk about a time for reflection. In the last ten years, for example, I have started law school, become a mom, completed law school, become an attorney, become a mom again, found a job that I adore and started the process of becoming a partner at my firm.  Not a bad showing, I'd say.

When I think back and wonder "what would have happened if...?" there really isn't a single big decision over the last ten years that I would change.  Which is funny, thinking about it, because seriously, who would have expected me to end up in a small town EVEN SMALLER than the one I grew up in?  Certainly no one who knew me before.  I was the girl who got on a plane three days after high school graduation and flew to California.  I was the girl who got the crazy idea to spend a full year in Japan during college, and who moved to St. Louis within a year of graduating from college!  How in the HECK did I end up here?!

Happy coincidence?  I really don't think so.  Looking back, I think in my heart I was always a small town girl.  I love it that my children can go play in the backyard and up the street without worrying about them.  I love it that my kids know every single other kid in their grade, not to mention those a year above and below them.  That when I walk in to the courthouse, people know each other and that my son calls the Sheriffs' deputies by their first names. 

Today is a great day.  It's been a great life... It's good to be 40.

Christine