Life has a funny way of putting things in perspective – harsh, like those magnifying mirrors no one wants to look in unless they’re, like, five years old.

From 12 to 18, we spend our days desperate to be older, putting on makeup to make ourselves look “grown up.” We dream about the glamorous life we’ll lead when we have our own husbands and houses and Honda minivans.

Then, between the ages of 19 and 25, we flat-iron our hair that looks better the way it grows out of our heads and suck in our stomachs that haven’t birthed children and look for flaws that don’t exist because we have no idea what actually growing up is going to do to us.

Now we’re 26 or 30, and maybe we’re getting married or buying a house or having a baby. We’ve got our big job and we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves but we start to realize, “Hey, now we have a mortgage and a mid-size SUV and maybe being a kid who didn’t need makeup to feel beautiful wasn’t so bad after all.”

Next thing you know you’re pushing 40, and everyone’s getting Botox and you wonder if you should be getting it, too, and honestly … does anything ever change?

When you were 12 with perfect skin you wanted to look older. Now you’re older, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with your skin except it’s aging, as is the natural order of things – and all you want to do is look younger. You buy all the serums and take all the supplements.

If you wanted a fake ID that said you were 21 when you were actually 17, now all you want is for people to ask for your ID because they think you’re not old enough to buy all this wine.

But here’s the thing – if we spend all this time, all our lives, wanting to be something we’re not, how are we supposed to enjoy any of it? I don’t want to wish my life away by wishing to be anything other than happy and healthy.

I don’t feel as old as I am. I don’t care if I look as old as I am, because guess what? I AM ACTUALLY THIS OLD. I have a cool life, a happy home, and I made three awesome people with this sucked-in stomach.

Life is good today. Just the way it is.

But don’t forget to moisturize.

This post was originally shared at FlightyMom.com and on Facebook.com.flightymom.