Turning 27; What no one tells you about being 26

Today, January 13th, 2018, I turned 27.

When I was thinking about what I wanted to write on TWR Blog to document my birthday, I really had no idea. I thought about the typical posts like “27 things you don’t know about me” or “my goal for being 27”, but none of that got me excited enough to put pen to paper…or in this day and age, fingers to keyboard.

So I started to think about the past year of my life, including the up’s, the down’s, what I learned, and what I wish to forget. Let’s just say a lot started to surface. But, everything definitely had one thing in common.

Now, I’m going to backtrack a little bit so bare with me here...

For as long as I can remember, I thought 25 was going to be the best year of my life. No, I’m not making this up.

For years, I had dreams (real, bedridden, snoozing dreams) of being 25 and having the best damn life there possibly was– like that rock star, badass, millionaire life. I even remember telling a lot of my friends about my excitement on turning 25 and getting anxious as I spoke those words.

Then, when I finally turned 25, guess what happened???

Nothing.

Nothing memorable, exciting, or noteworthy happened to me when I turned 25, and that’s the truth. Of course, I had fun here and there and didn’t have anything too terrible happen to me. But, after all that hype building up to the "best year of my life", 25 felt like a complete dud.

And do you want to know why? Because I had just expected life to happen.

I expected life to be great and automatically fall into place. I had expected crazy cool things to happen for my business with the right people coming into my life at the right time. I expected to be rolling in the dough, going on lavish trips, and meeting the coolest people. What I did was expect everything to just happen, when in reality, nothing ever did.

So when my 26th birthday came around the corner, I had almost forgotten about it. There was no excitement leading up to it, no huge plans being made, nor any expectations for the year ahead. But, when I turned 26, amazing things actually did happen.

This past year of my life was one for the books. Some noteworthy things that happened for me were:

Taking my business to the next level.

I started hosting events, working with more companies, scaling up my business, offering new services, investing in continuing education courses, and carving a unique space for myself in the wellness space. It finally started to feel right. 

Meeting the most incredible people.

I started filling my coffee dates with people who pushed me, people who inspired me, and people who brought incredible opportunities and motivation into my life. And this part didn't just happen. I started to say hi to people in my workout classes, I started going to more networking events, and I started to reach out to other badass people via social media. I finally found my people.

Leaving my full-time job.

Last summer, I had been pursuing The Wellness Rookie for over 3 years and knew if I wasn’t going to take the leap now, then I never would. So in July of 2017, I made the decision to quit my job, and haven’t looked back since.

Read my post on 3 Signs It Might Be Time to Quit Your Job

Meeting Cody.

Actually, I knew Cody (my bf) for about a year prior, but had never let myself be with Cody for fear of relying too much on another person or opening up my heart and emotions. Then, I realized how good I felt around him and how much fun I had with him, and it finally clicked. Thanks for sticking with me, Cod <3

Helping my mom free up her life.

As I have mentioned, my family has owned a bar and restaurant since I was two-years-old. In 2013 my dad suddenly passed away from a serious stroke, leaving my mom to run the business solely on her own. I made the decision as a daughter and a friend to move home and help her run the business while it was for sale. Week after week, month after month, and years would go by with not one interested buyer on the table. It was almost heartbreaking, as both of us felt stuck in a life that was holding us back. Then, on December 28th, 2017, the business officially sold to a local man eager to get into the restaurant business. Now, myself and especially my mom can officially move on to the next chapter of our lives.

As you can see, 26 was pretty memorable. Of course, there were some downer moments, but what can you do? I chose to instead persistently push forward and go after the meaning of life. And I'm definitely happy with the results.

This post, titled “Turning 27; What no one tells you about being 26”, actually has nothing to do with being 26. What it’s really about is in order to live a life you love; you can’t just expect things to happen for you. You have to make them happen. You have to step outside your comfort zone, try something new, fail time and time again, and truly go after whatever it is that makes you tick. This change might not happen at 25 – hell, it might not happen at 26, but it will happen.

You just have to prove it.

XO, Cass