Paris Hilton has heard that a person's 30s are "the best years of your life."
And we don't doubt that Hilton will make it so.
Celebrating her 30th birthday today, the heiress sat down with E! News to dish about leaving her 20s behind, her "incredible" boyfriend and what her proudest accomplishment is so far.
"The thing I feel most accomplished about is the brand that I've built. I have 17 different product lines," Hilton says, making us feel like real slackers in the name-brand product department.
While sometimes it's been easy to forget that a savvy businesswoman lurks beneath the love-to-party exterior, Hilton's 20s have indeed been very profitable, even when you factor in the bumps in the road—which she sums up as "life lessons."
"I've had a crazy 20s. I feel like I've really lived life and I've learned so much," she tells us. "Everything happens for a reason. I've had so many life lessons, it's made me the person I am today and I'm very strong."
She also appears quite pleased that she's heading into that scary-for-some age with a guy like Cy Waits by her side.
"I'm so happy. He's an incredible person," Hilton says of her boyfriend of nearly a year, and not just because he got her a Lexus LFA sports car for her B-day.
"He's so loyal and I feel so safe," she gushes. "He's my hero. He saved my life when that guy came with two big knives," she adds, recalling the would-be intruder who was arrested after banging on her window in an apparent attempt to get inside.
We heard at the time that Waits ran downstairs and pulled a gun on the guy and held him at bay until the police arrived.
Sure enough, that's what he did.
"Thank God he had a gun with him and he had to literally put it to the guy's head," Hilton says. "We waited a half-hour for police to come."
And, perhaps most importantly, "He loves me for me."
And considering she can't see herself with anyone but him...
"I'd love to have a family one day," Hilton affirms. "Having kids is the meaning of life and I can't wait to be a mom."
But not yet.
"I'm just excited for my 30s," she says. "Everyone says those are the best years of your life...I just wish for continued happiness, and love, and success and excitement in life."