Twenty-Three

As most of you know, it's my 23rd birthday today. So far it's been great: My mom made me breakfast and decorated my door (a family tradition), my friend Adelyn took me to lunch and then we saw Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 and had Pinkberry for the first time, and later on I'm having Chinese food & Margaritas with a few friends and watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Plus, getting presents and e-cards and and facebook "happy birthdays" is pretty fun :-).

I have to say, it's been an unusual birthday this year. It's the first time since I turned 18 that I was in Mission Viejo for it. And before 18 it was 14, so it's quite the anomaly. Plus, 23 seems like a milestone birthday for some reason. Possibly because by the time you're 23, it's likely that you have some kind of direction. And, it also falls during a year of changes for me. This is my last birthday as a single woman, and it also marks the end of a 2-year break from being a student. I guess overall it's been a surreal year, and my birthday is no exception.

When we were at Pinkberry Adelyn asked me an interesting question (Adelyn I hope you don't mind that I include this - it really got me thinking!). She asked whether I had any goals for myself on my 23rd year, other than the obvious get good grades, a good summer job, get married stuff. It occurred to me that a big thing on my mind this year has been my maturity. I've always felt a little older than my peers, maybe because I take a lot of responsibility upon myself. I think I felt so comfortable working with a group of people who were a little older that now I'm a little scared to go back into an environment where the average age is lower than 25. So, I resolved to not care about that as much this year. I will try to be more open-minded and not fixate on the age and maturity of my peers, because it just doesn't matter.

It feels good to set a personal goal for myself, outside of the obvious benchmarks. We'll see how it goes. Have a good weekend!