HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

I turned 22 today. Correction, since my clock reads 1236 am, I guess I technically turned 22 yesterday. Nitpicking aside, I always thought that birthdays are a perfect time to reminisce and to reflect upon the life I’ve lived so far.

I sometimes wonder why turning a year older doesn’t make me feel different. Not that one day would be enough to wrought a noticeable change, but sometimes you’d think that turning a whole year older, especially during "milestone" ages, that you’d change significantly. Inside and outside. Don’t get me wrong, after 22 birthdays, I’ve stopped expecting and hoping for such a change, but sometimes I just wonder. I read books, I watch movies, I know people who have things happening to them and I look at myself and think that my life is so boring.

When I hit 16, my mind was filled with thoughts of romance and the Year That I’ll Fall In Love. After all, in Sweet Valley, Sweet Dreams, Love Stories, and most teenybopper movies out, 16 is the landmark age where a girl falls in love. Well, 16 came and went and I was still love-less. Or rather, let me rephrase that, I had crushes, they just didn’t crush back.

Then again, who said that maturity and falling in love have to follow timetables? I think I fell in love when I was 12 years old. I know my first boyfriend was in first year college. Unless you count the one in first year high school which I kinda don’t so let’s not talk about it.

When I hit 18 and had my debut, I was hoping something Exciting and Marvelous would happen. But other than the fact that I started college, experienced having two boyfriends that year (not at the same time!) nothing else happened. Then again, falling for two guys in the space of one year might account for something, eh?

When I hit 20, I was starting to worry. I was nearing adult-hood, what had I to show in my life? Have I done everything that I’ve wanted to do? Was I on the right track on pursuing my dreams? At the young age of 20, I hit the 20-year-old version of a mid-life crisis LOL

Finally, I turned 21. I was legally an adult in all four corners of the globe (yknow, that saying never made sense since the globe has no four corners; wonder how it ever came to be?). And I guess I’m lucky to have made it to 21, eh? So who am I to nitpick? But nitpick I slightly did. I mean, here I am, 21. True, I was on the path of fulfilling my dream of becoming a doctor, true I had a supportive and wonderful family I loved and true friends whom I love dearly. While nothing I would define as "exciting" or "stuff like the movies (or books)" has happened to me, my life isn’t really so bad, is it? I’ve got people I love who love me back, no regrets (since I don’t believe in regrets & live life to the fullest); I’ve experienced love. So what if nothing remarkable has happened in my life? I’ve had experiences and people who have changed my life in the little ways that matter.

So, now that I’m 22… Life’s not so bad, is it? And I’m okay and doing fine. I have a greater appreciation for life.

Happy birthday to me and may I have many more birthdays to come. Because, as I know too well, life’s short. I gotta make the most of it, grabbing it by the scruff if its’ neck and shaking everything I can out of it. Living each day as if it were my last, living life to the fullest. Carpe diem, people, and life will hold no regrets or what-ifs for you.