When I was 20, I looked at women over 40 and thought:
“Oh, they are so serious... Everything is determined with them, a schedule to the minute, plans for years ahead. No romance, adventures, spontaneity. Real adulthood.”

And it’s funny now to remember these youthful stereotypes. Because now, when I’m 43, I know that everything is completely different.
The paradox is that right now I feel truly alive. Light, free, confident, feminine - like never before. And not at all like that imaginary “woman over 40” that I imagined in my student years.

I am no longer afraid to make mistakes, I don’t worry about what others will think. I allow myself to live, feel, try, fall in love in the moment and… with people.

I still love fun - the same as when I was 20. I can spontaneously buy a ticket to a new city, simply because I felt that my soul wanted to move. I can ride a bike for hours without a route, sing in my soul at the top of my voice or dance in the kitchen, preparing something delicious to my favorite music from the 90s 🥰

My friends laugh that I “live on the drive”. And I just don’t want to betray myself. Because I believe: life should be delicious, bright, emotional - at any age.

Is this a second youth? Maybe.

But I think - I just haven’t finished my first one. And I don’t even plan to. Because the best seems to be just beginning 💫