Hipy Papy Bthuthdth Thuthda Bthuthdy…to ME!

So Owl wrote… and this is what he wrote:
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.
Pooh looked on admiringly.
“I’m just saying ‘A Happy Birthday’,” said Owl carelessly.
“It’s a nice long one,” said Pooh, very much impressed by it.
“Well, actually, of course, I’m saying ‘A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh.’ Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing like that.”
“Oh, I see,” said Pooh.

Today is my 30th birthday and I am super excited!

My dad called last night to wish me a happy birthday (he said he was afraid he’d forget to call today, so he decided to jump the gun). I complained about how I have to spend my birthday evening in my 3D modeling class, and he commented that birthdays aren’t a big deal as adults anyway. But I beg to differ. I know that 30 is supposed to be a sad and depressing birthday or whatever, but honesty I have been looking forward to this since Christmas. I mean, I’m 30!

Think about all the cool things that I’ve been able to do in three decades. I learned to walk, I learned to talk, I went to school, I made friends, I graduated from college, I helped launch some space shuttles, I saw the world… It’s all pretty dang cool, and while the next three decades may not be as dynamic, I expect to do some pretty awesome things in my 30s, 40s, and 50s as well.

Here’s my own retrospective of my first three decades. I don’t have many photos of my elementary and middle school years (probably because I went through the standard hideous teenage girl phase and prefer to block that out of my mind), but I was able to dig up a few.

Here I am as a wee baby in 1978. This looks like it was taken at my house and not in the hospital, so I guess I’m a few days old here at least. But look at my hands! I’m still all wrinkley!

Here I am with my grandparents in their RV at Myrtle Beach. My grandfather died just before I turned 2, so sadly I don’t have any memories of him — just some photos. But my grandmother is still going strong at 93 years old, so it looks like I probably have many, many more years to go.

I’m 5 years old in this photo, and I know that with certainty because I’m pretty sure what I’m holding is either my little sister Katie or my little brother Brian, as an infant right after they came home from the hospital. (I’m probably holding Katie, since I think she came home first.) They were born in 1983.

I don’t know for sure, but I’m probably about 5 years old in this photo as well. That’s one of my childhood best friends, Thomas, in the background. Obviously I was easily amused. Sandbox + water hose = hours of fun.

This is one of the only photos I could find from my elementary and junior high years. It was taken at my family’s dairy farm in Pennsylvania the summer when I was 11 years old. Also in the photo are my sister Katie, cousin Michael, cousin Pam, and brother Brian.

A few years later and here I am during my freshman year of high school. This was actually taken at Epcot Center on the trip that made me want to be an aerospace engineer. I won a trip to Kennedy Space Center after writing a paper about an experiment that could be done on Mars and entering it in a contest. The other two girls were from my high school as well.

Here I am as a high school senior in 1996. I’m sitting in the door of my first car — a hand-me-down (from my mom) 1986 Pontiac station wagon. With wood grain trim and everything. Aw yeah.

Fast forward another 5 years and here I am right smack in the middle of graduating from Georgia Tech. My friend Daniel was taking photos for the college newspaper (for which I was a section editor) and he got this great photo of Becca and me with our diplomas.

And finally, here I am at 27 years old. This was taken on the shore of Lake Tahoe when we all went skiing there just over two years ago. I had been dating Jose for a grand total of 2 months, and I remember being slightly nervous about the prospect of having him along on a big group vacation when I was just really getting to know him.

Obviously things worked out just fine.

Happy 30th Birthday to me!