On age.
Today is my twentieth birthday. That still doen’t seem real to me in some aspects, that I’ve been alive two whole decades, that were we still in Renaissance times I’d only have another ten to twenty years of life left, that my grandparents had been married two years by the time they were my age.
I’m not one to think about the future too much. If I start thinking about the details, I get bogged down and stressed out, so I normally just choose to go with the flow. There are, however, occasions when I inevitably dream about the future and what it may hold. Birthdays are one of those times.
I am twenty years old. Two decades. Yet those two decades flew by so fast that I still can’t believe I’m sitting where I am now. Sometimes I do wonder what the next ten years will be like. I’ll have graduated college, possibly earned my master’s degree, maybe working toward my doctorate. I could be living in a big city or in another country. I might have a husband and a kid or two, or I may still be single. I don’t know what my future holds, but I’m excited to see where it takes me.
One thing I do know about my future, though, is that I will never not love birthdays. I really don’t think I’ll mind getting older. Sure, sometimes I long for the simplicity of yesteryear, but, if given the chance to go back I’d refuse. I like where I am in life and want to keep relishing in the moment, living it up. I want to earn and be proud of each wrinkle and grey hair. I want to be that old lady everyone comes to to hear stories, ask advice, or simply talk to. I want to live old enough to watch my grandchildren play in the backyard, but stay young enough to join in (albeit with slightly less entusiasm).
I don’t see growing older as a bad thing at all. I hope I will never be ashamed to tell people my age because each year of my life will be a year full of memories, of joyful times and heartbreaks, of stress and pure peace, of surprises and thought-out plans. And, while I’m very happy to live in the moment I’m in right now, I can’t wait to see what each new day brings.
