I grew up in Coral Gables, Florida, and hadn't been back since I was a kid, so I thought it would be the perfect place to celebrate turning the big 3-0...Warm weather, the air full of nostalgia, pina coladas by the pool...I could hardly contain my excitement. Of course, for my 1st few days there, I was really sick with a bad cold, the weather was freezing, and I was beginning to feel the immediacy of just how big turning 3o was possibly going to feel.

But the day before my birthday, I went to Alan's Drug Store and Diner, where, as a kid, I had spent many a day eating an ice cream cone at the counter, while my mom did a little shopping. It was one of my favorite places growing up and I was so happy to find it still there. I just wanted to drive by it, but I saw that the diner part of the store happened to be open (it was Sunday) so I couldn't resist going in for breakfast and it amazingly looked just the same. They did replace the booths with tables, unfortunately, but all the walls were that same familiar green color and one wall was now covered in graffiti from customers.

So there I sat with Cory, eating my grilled cheese, enjoying my last day of being 29, and I noticed this perfect little space on the wall right where I was sitting. So I asked for a marker and as I tried to think of something to write besides "katy was here", I suddenly felt deliriously happy. Giddy almost. Suddenly turning 30 sounded like the most wonderful thing in the world. Somehow being in that diner, at that moment, with my childhood so closely juxtaposed to my present day self, I felt like I had come full circle, that I had somehow returned to myself after being gone on a long trip. And that's when I knew that I was officially done with being in my 20's. It was a dramatic, crazy and complicated decade, and now the real me was back. A true and happy me, ready to take on the world, ready to settle for nothing less than being truly happy in life.

It was simply the best birthday present I could have asked for.