Before I turn 40

I’m an ‘old’ 32-year old. That’s kind of like the opposite of “being a young 65 year-old.”

I’m obsessed with my age and always have been. I suffered from great anxiety in the months leading up to my 25^th birthday and I put alot of pressure on years 25 – 30.

At 25 I made an unrealistic (and poorly though-out) list of things to have accomplished by the age of 30 which included things like:

1.  buy a luxury car
2. having (at least) 4 children
3. establishing my career
4.  publishing a book 
5.  retiring at the age of 30

To my 20 year-old self, from me at 32.

To my 20 year-old self, from me at 32.

If I could speak to my 20 year old self, what would say? (In no specific order)

1. Speak Up

Speak up, make yourself heard and exude confidence. If you have something to say, then say it and stop making excuses. You will not regret it. But you will regret and painfully remember each and every time that you should have spoken up, no matter how little the issue was/is, like in 7^th grade when you were desperate to enter the math competition at a local high school, but too timid to tell your teacher that you really wanted to do it. Gabriela, you probably would have won it.