I turned 40 this year as well. I hate sharing a birth year with that cow, but mine is around the beginning of January, so I'm almost a year older than her anyway. I took two separate solo trips to WDW this year to celebrate this birthday.
BUT, there are numerous reasons for that...
-My husband and I don't have children. Like so many of you, and
unlike the Trackers, we did everything we could to get pregnant. We tried diligently for over a year on our own, using ovulating tests every month, and I lost over 80 lbs. in the process to get as healthy as possible. Because when you want something bad enough, you do whatever you can to make it happen,
Jennifer. We then went to my OBGYN and did the battery of tests, exams, and procedures, some of which were excruciatingly painful. I started the typical fertility treatments (Clomid, injections, IUIs) with him, to no avail. After months of that, he recommended us to a fertility specialist in Metro Atlanta, nearly 2 hours away from us, one way. We made multiple trips there to go through all the same exams, tests, and procedures all over again, which is when we finally got the diagnosis of unexplained infertility. The specialist told us he had no doubt I could get pregnant eventually, based on my health, age (still under 30 at the time), and our mutual conditions. But he couldn't tell us how long it would take, or how much it would cost us, because our only remaining option was IVF. I desperately needed a break from all of it at that point, and in the months that followed, I realized that I was actually ok without children. My husband wanted them desperately though, and always had, so I told him that if he wanted to divorce so he could find someone who could hopefully give him children, I totally understood and wouldn't hold it against him at all. I loved him enough to want him to be happy, even if that wasn't with me. He immediately said he was grateful that I loved him so much, but he only wanted to be with me, that we were more than enough, just the two of us. And that's how it's been ever since, us and all our dogs, who are our children
-I'm an only child. So I crave alone time, and when I've had to deal with people a lot, I recharge by being by myself.
-I've always gone to WDW with parents and other family members, but since I was a young adult, I've dreamed about what it'd be like to go on a solo trip. To be totally selfish and do whatever I wanted the entire time. I never thought it was in the realm of possibility for me.
-My husband hates WDW. My luck, right? We went there for part of our honeymoon, and on our five-year anniversary, so he's done his duty. My parents both love it, and I've been going with my mom instead every few years since then. Plus, my husband is an avid outdoorsman and goes on hunting trips out of town with buddies several times a year. We always go on at least one vacation together every year for our anniversary, though, and often take other smaller, overnight trips as well.
-I finally was able to achieve my bucket list dream of a solo WDW trip back in 2020, when everything was discounted because no one was going, and we all had received several stimulus checks. I had the time of my life; it was everything I imagined and more.
-I decided as my 40th gift to myself that I'd go on another solo trip this year during the week of my birthday and splurge by eating at the Brown Derby for the first time ever. It was another fantastic trip. Then the morning after I returned home, we got the call that my father-in-law had just died suddenly and very tragically. It was like being hit by a train. Everything I had just experienced at WDW vanished into vague memory.
-Over the summer, I came up with the idea to do a 40th birthday solo trip part 2. Not to redo the first trip, but to add to it and hopefully leave myself with lasting memories this time. I stayed at the Yacht & Beach Club for the first time, it was amazing, and most importantly, everyone in our families stayed healthy and well while I was gone and after I returned.
Will I go on more solo trips to WDW in the future? Certainly, if I'm able. But I'm still going to go with my mother as often as she wants as well. There are things I love about both scenarios.
TLDR? The vast majority of us deserve time to ourselves occasionally, when we're able, and to do what makes us happy. Jenn is a lying, narcissistic
bleep who has completely forgotten how normal human beings live and operate. And she deserves every ounce of karma that I'm sure will eventually come her way.
