Dear 30’s,

It’s been a long road, 30’s! I can’t believe a decade has passed just like that. As I reach the last month of my 30’s, I want to thank you for a great ride. I can confidently say that my 30’s have been probably one of the most unique, thrilling, challenging, and rewarding adventure. If my 20’s were about exploration and learning about myself, my 30’s was about experiencing LIFE and the great possibilities ripe for the taking. It’s with bittersweetness that I close the chapter on this decade, and with great hopes I see the great growth, depth, and history that is to come in my 40’s.

I began you, 30’s, as an ambitious yet still immature spirit in all things; in my career I was limiting my potential stuck to golden handcuffs, in my relationships I was aimless and lost, in my faith I was infantile at best. I was lost in a life of alcohol, chasing the world, and very much in the rat race. 30’s, you taught me to take a chance with my life, and take leaps of faith to try new directions. You showed me the sheer power of building business, and the power to live life freely on my own terms. You taught me the true value of time. You built my tolerance for not caring about the petty things in life – and also that most things in life are just that – petty. Instead you showed me focus, discipline, and grit – the things that carried me through this decade. You’ve shown me what is really important in life.

It hasn’t been all roses by any means. You’ve shown me what it is to go through heartache, loss, and failure. You’ve shown me the depths of human adversity, and the importance of persevering through with grit. Thanks for showing me that I can carry on even when I lose the shirt off my back.

It’s a miracle that I made it to the end of the 30’s the way I did. It’s been such a long journey, with so many ups and downs along the way. You blessed me with a beautiful wife and son, and the ability to enjoy their presence 24/7 thanks to a business that basically runs itself. That too, a blessing that you bestowed upon me for taking the chance of going all-in on the biggest bet of my life in 2014 to go into business selling things online. 30’s, the greatest gift of all that I believe you have given me is belief in myself, and how I can accomplish great things based on this foundation.

I went from never believing I’d marry until at least my 40’s to having the privilege and honor of marrying my wife Sarah at the age of 37. November 18, 2017 was the happiest, most majestic day of our lives, thanks to you, 30’s!

I thank you for blessing me with a magical 30’s. I mean, really- who gets to travel the world for a year with their wife while growing financial freedom?! Yacht parties, cigar clubs, weekend trips to Europe and Asia first class, making money with my friends, lavish dinners, sports cars, oceanfront apartments, real estate investments, taking my entire family to Bora Bora- what is all this?? At times I’ve had to pause several times to see if this was too good to be true. But I think as fun and nice as all of these things have been to enjoy, I can’t help but to feel that my 40’s will have a more introspective focus, as my family grows, and new adventures begin. Sure, the good times can still continue and they will, but the way you let me enjoy them in my 30’s won’t be the priority by any means. Perhaps the new normal will come to be a place where the key focus of what I truly care about are the loved ones around me and building a family and a legacy. The way I write these words are already such a far cry from what I would have said at the start of my 30’s.

You’ve blessed me with many more friends of real depth- with brothers, sisters to lean on, and deepened the depth of my existing extended family. Through so many experiences, through thick and thin times, you’ve let me build a history with my closest friends. And while the closest have become closer, you’ve also helped me prune out the toxic ones that would steal my time away from the quality ones. I’ve had to drop some of these like a bad habit, and you’ve helped me make clean breaks where I’ve needed to.

30’s, you’ve helped me explore more of what it is to believe in God and follow him, and that all things in life are in his control. While this was academic at the beginning of my 30’s, as I stand here today and looking back, it was God who carried me through this tumultuous life in this decade. I still don’t actually believe in luck – it’s just serendipity that comes from divine intervention or hard work. I’m still a hot mess with a lot to work on, but this is only a foreboding of the growing that is still to come in my life.

As I now turn the page, I thank you for a most excellent 30’s. Thanks for all the magical memories that will echo throughout the rest of my life. I mean, it could not go any better than it has, come on. I ask that you bestow upon my sister the same (if not even better) experience as she’s about to open your book. She’s already grown up way faster than I have, so please be kind to her 30’s, and give her the the great wonders you’ve shown me. Seems like she is in for quite the ride already from the looks of it!

With that, I’m ready for you, 40! Let’s see what “the new 20’s” are all about.

-P