Without a doubt, the thing I’m most proud of is my family.

Even though getting married and having kids seems traditional, even conservative in some ways, it’s actually a crazy risk. Who the heck knows how it’ll all work out? You hope for the best when you choose a partner, knowing full well that nearly half of marriages fail. Then, once a baby arrives, you become the second most important in your own life. There’s not one single thing you would not do to protect your child. As Hillary Clinton said, “having a child is like deciding to let your heart forever walk around outside your body.” There is no love stronger, or more terrifying.

I know I’ve had it easier than many, but my generation has dealt with A LOT. It is completely understandable that many GenXers did not choose to go the marriage and children route. From the AIDS epidemic just as we were starting our biggest “hooking up” years (AIDS first made the cover of TIME magazine when I was a senior in high school), to President Reagan massively cutting federal aid for higher education (my two best friends had to drop out of their private colleges after freshman year), to the “Black Monday” stock market crash in 1987 (the year I graduated college), there were some pretty negative external forces at play.

The other thing that GenX has seen a lot of is addiction – both alcoholism and drug abuse. I know Baby Boomers smoked plenty of weed, but GenX had a lot more access to harder and more addictive drugs. If you’re in your fifties and you don’t know someone who overdosed and/or went to rehab, you’re lucky.

That is all to say, things weren’t always easy, but I’m so glad I took that leap of faith and got married and had two awesome children! I miss them terribly, but it’s only because we did such a damn good job raising them that they are out in the world living independently. “Adulting” is no easy task and I’m so proud of both of them for doing it so well.