20!

It's my birthday. And I made it to 20! 

20 is an odd age. 

On one hand, 20 is an awkward 3-year stretch of uneventful age, where nothing particularly exciting or socially gratifying occurs. I can vote, I can join the army (nvrmd I'm Diabetic and I can't), I can't drink (*giggles inconspicuously*), I can't rent a car and nobody really takes you seriously when you're 18-21 it seems, anyways. 

But at the same time, 20 is a pretty special age to turn. 20 marks the end of my teenage years, and with that I suppose a whole decade of crazy, tumultuous, emotional and mental turmoil - woah, being a teenager was (is, I still have a few minutes) pretty crazy. I don't expect 20 to bring any less emotional/mental turmoil, and I'm certain I'll experience greater challenges in the next decade, but it's still nice to feel as though, in this moment, my slate is wiped clean.

20, the start of my third decade, is probably one of the most important decades in anyone's life. In my life. I'll finish school, start a career, maybe if I'm not busy being a free spirit settle down, I work with kids all the time so really I'd rather not think about kids... ever... 

Yeah, it'll have a lot of changes. 

Maybe I'll take this new year to think more deeply. (I'm tired, I just wrote deeply more think before I fixed that). Read a new political science book. Change my views on something. Realign my life's direction. And certainly, try harder to manage my Diabetes.

But regardless of what I'll do all year, I'll start with the very first day. As I've learned from many rather lackluster college birthdays in the past, my birthday is just like any other day, really. But I hope to make it truly special this year, by celebrating with a number of odd, eccentric things on a to-do list I crafted over the course of this week. 

I'm going to go to a hotel I'm not staying in and see if I can get away with eating the continental breakfast.

Jump in a swimming pool with my clothes on.

Drop 20 pennies face up anywhere.

Compliment strangers.

Buy a new book.

Get a free firehouse sub. 

Watch the premier of the Walking Dead. 

Stargaze.

Blog. (Check).

And who knows what else? I'll see how the day goes. 

So here's to the start of a new decade, a new set of challenges, new changes, beginnings, tragedies, joys, events. I'm ready as I'll ever be.