I'm almost 30, and if there's one thing I've learned along the way, it's that life at 30 doesn't come with all the answers; it actually comes with more questions.

If you're approaching this phase, you might also be realizing that many of your certainties are about to crumble, and that this, however uncomfortable it may seem, is a great sign.

This text is part of a series I started writing called " The Penalty Drops at 30 " (even though my birthday isn't until 2027, breathe, there's still time to mess up a little more, haha).

🎭 My dream job at 17 is not the same as it is today.

I remember the courage and audacity I had when I left high school. I was sure I would make a living from theater, and honestly, I still believe there's something in theater that awaits me.
But today I understand that it was part of the journey , a bridge for me to live experiences that brought me here, where I'm beginning to see my true potential.

Midway through my undergraduate studies, I fell in love with education. I love teaching, but I realized I love being an art therapist even more .
Through a lot of therapy, I understood that education is a place that helps me structure my life . If I had had this clarity years ago, I would have made some different choices. Today I see that the universe (or God, or chance, it doesn't matter) gave me the chance to return to education with more awareness , to build a foundation that brings me peace of mind, while I continue my path as an art therapist.

Is it exhausting? Yes.
But it's necessary.

👨‍⚖️ Change has no age limit.

My father, in 2025, at age 59, graduated in Law and passed the bar exam.
I doubt that at 28 he imagined he would one day be a lawyer.
Today, like me, he is experiencing a career transition.

Some of the women who studied art therapy with me had 20 or 30 years of professional experience, some already retired.
If so many people I know are rediscovering themselves after 50, why not accept that doubts around 30 are natural?

We don't always need to abandon everything. Sometimes it's just a matter of supporting two things at the same time , until the new can support us, financially and spiritually.

🕰️ Think about your routine, not just your profession.

I don't know if it's something personal, something generational, or a collective change, but today I think more about the routine I want to have than the profession I want to have .
The questions that resonate are:

"How do I want to live?"
"How do I want to wake up and go to sleep?"
"How do I want to feel doing my work?"
"Where do I want to be?"

I learned to think about this with the patience of someone who understands (or tries to understand) that life is a process .
The routine I dream of doesn't appear overnight.
Today, I invest in things that are still far from ideal, but are a possible start .

💥 Make it happen, even if it's not what you imagined.

For a long time, I waited for the right moment, the right person, the perfect scenario.
But the truth is, everything will never be ready, and fear will always exist.
If I don't take risks, I'll never get anywhere.

I learned this by buying my apartment and trying to drive: nothing turned out the way I dreamed, but it turned out the way it did , and that's enough to keep going.

💧 Health, water, and sunscreen

Taking care of my health has become urgent.
I was living on autopilot and, before I knew it, I'd reached my heaviest weight. My skin changed, my hair changed, and what has been saving me is sunscreen.

Even though I used it every day, because I didn't know the importance of reapplying it, I ended up with some blemishes on my face.
That's how it happens: little by little, without realizing it, we neglect our health .
Now I'm rushing to recover what I can.

I don't want to be completely worn out when I turn 30 (and I haven't even reached that point yet, haha).
I want to rediscover the joy of living in a healthy, flexible, hydrated, and dancing body before I turn 30.

🐸 There comes a time when you learn to swallow frogs.

Calm down, it's not about accepting everything silently.
It's about choosing the right battles .
There are some things that simply aren't worth my peace.

There are times when, due to life choices, I need to swallow my pride, calm down, and move on.
I've wanted to give up a thousand times, but I know where I want to go, and that's why I've learned that patience and focus are worth more than explosive behavior .

💼 Life isn't just work, and I am not defined by what I do.

Being born in '97 means carrying the chaos of Millennials and the doubts of Generation Z at the same time.
But seeing colleagues getting sick because work defines them made me understand that I don't want to live like that .

Even though I love art therapy, I want the work to be a part of my life, not the center of it .
No matter how amazing we are at what we do, it doesn't define who we are .

🌱 You'll continue to be a beginner, many times over.

We grow up thinking that adult life brings certainties, but perhaps certainty is just a well-sold myth .
A professor in my graduate school told me:

"To be good at something, you have to endure the pain of being bad at it."

And that's it.
To evolve, we need to endure the discomfort of the beginning, of imperfection, of what is still being built.
We will be beginners in many phases, and that's okay.
The important thing is to sustain the process .

Approaching 30 has been an invitation to accept that life isn't a straight line, it's a curve full of returns, detours, and new beginnings .
Some plans change, others dissolve, and some dreams return in new forms.

Perhaps growing up is this: stopping the search for a perfect destination and learning to walk, even while stumbling .
And if everything goes wrong, there's still water, sunscreen, and the right to start over as many times as necessary.