30 Things to Do Before You’re 30

Most of us were deprived of something as children, whether due to negligence, accident, or just ignorance. Many of us decide to have children so we can give them the things we missed, but we often forget that our younger selves  still live inside of us.  Even as adults, we continue to desperately reach out to the same people that deprived us as children for some sort of fulfillment, only to be disappointed once again. It was only recently that I realized that once you become an adult, it's your responsibility to protect and nurture the child within you.

My grandmother raised my mom with the believe that you must be loved and financially supported by a man in order to be fulfilled as a woman - and she passed that token of advice onto me. I started dating at age 13 to appease my family, as well as to fill the hole in my heart that was created by the absence of a father and growing up in severe poverty.  I became a "serial monogamist", dating one man after another, until I found a real jewel who proposed to me a week before my college graduation. He then accumulated...
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