For the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be. It's the strangest feeling to try and describe to someone who doesn't know what you're talking about, but those who get it, get it.

I suppose that's why I felt inspired to write this post in the first place: I’m finally feeling a level of inner peace that has evaded me for a long time.

It probably helps that I'm on yet another flight. I've always loved being up in the air - it's my happy place.

But it's also a true reflection of where my life is at just now. One of my favorite pass-times while 30,000 feet in the air is to look back on old photo albums in my phone and reflect on what was and what is. Looking back on my life from even just 5 years ago, I don't even recognize that sad, lonely, unhealthy girl in the pictures. It's fair to say that my mid-twenties were the lowest and darkest years of my life. But that's all behind me now and so much has changed around me that I can barely remember the feelings I'm hiding behind my eyes in every photograph.

After many long years of what has felt like running in circles and stumbling in the dark both mentally and physically, I'm settled back in New England with the love of my life in a beautiful apartment in a cool city with a stable and comfortable job - what more could I ask for?

Is this what true gratitude and contentment feel like? Whatever it is, it's a strange one for me... not wishing I was somewhere else or with someone else. Not worrying about what's coming next or what's just minutes behind me. Just being here, present and in the moment, on my flight to New York to attend an award show on behalf of the incredible company I'm so proud to work for. With my wonderful husband waiting patiently for me to return home - to our home and our life together.

It sounds crazy, but nothing - and I mean NOTHING - can make you appreciate the now quite like a long-distance relationship turned cohabitation; a Green Card application approved and life apart finally shifted to life together. As a neat freak and control freak alike, having everything in its place is absolutely essential to my mental health - and that extends to my sweet husband being where he belongs in my bed with me each night and me being finally at home in the present space and time and age.

I am happy in my late twenties. I feel self-sufficient and capable. I feel empowered and confident. I feel good.

It's been a long-awaited moment for me - with lots of mountains to climb and boulders to move to get here. But that's just part of life, isn't it? Maybe I've just finally learned the lesson they are always trying to teach me: that every dark era in your life will eventually end, you just have to keep looking forward toward the light.

Every flight has a beginning and ending destination and I'm so proud of the journey I've taken to get where I am today.

I'm well on my way to the life of my dreams and I cannot wait to look back on the next five years of photographs sitting on yet another plane somewhere 30,000 feet above the earth halfway to my forties.

Xoxo

Write on!