Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my twenty-second birthday. I always kind of wondered about this birthday, because it feels like my first grown-up one. You've got the teenage years, in which you are obviously still a kid,then you turn twenty and eveyone makes a big deal about you not being a teenager anymore, which merely serves to make you feel the same as you always did. Twenty-one is exciting and you get to drink and go to casinos, neither of which my law-abiding-Biola-self got to do. But twenty-two is just the beginning of all the non-descript birthdays your parents have always had.

I used to wonder about those birthdays too. When does a birthday cease to become the main event in your young life, and changes to a day that a lot of people forget, your friends make you feel special, and you spend wondering at the brevity of life? Turns out that birthday is twenty-two. My dad always said that it was all down hill from 16. Secretly I always thought it was all down hill from 22.

Today instead of birthday cake or a party I am eating creme brulee that Amanda picked-up from our favorite restuarant as I sit at my desk. Tonight one of my best friends is taking me out to dinner, and then I think I will watch American Idol. It might not be the thing kid's dreams are made of, but it doesn't feel down hill to me. I think I'll like being twenty-two.