Birthday Retrospective: Today and Years Past

I'm fairly certain that 22 is not a milestone. But, for some reason, it feels more like one than any other birthday I've ever had.  Just going by all the stuff I had to do today, you'd think I had a rather crappy birthday, but I assure you, I've had worse. Come, let's take a look.

April 7, 1997

Everything is going well. There's cake, ice cream, 6 or 7 friends from elementary school that end up never talking to me after about middle school, and one more thing. A scavenger hunt.  Pretty neat, huh? WRONG.

It is this particular scavenger hunt in which, I, being the foolish 8 year old that I am, decide to follow my guts on a clue that hints to something involving sound. I immediately think "my brother's stereo" and rush to his room, only to step on and break a model jeep that he was building and had left on the floor.  Nice move, me. Now you have to wait until 6th grade until your brother likes you again.


April 7, 2003

I've been sick for a week. I'm taking some pretty nasty medicine that I've never had to take before or since. This particular medicine does not allow one to consume dairy along side it.  No problem, It's not college so I haven't gotten addicted to cheese yet. I'll live.

OH WAIT. My cake's frosting is dairy. No cake for you, sucker!  And by the time I'm better, the cake is long gone.  That's probably the worst thing in the history of everything. Missing out on  your own birthday cake.


April 7, 2010

I basically freak out and have an existential crisis. 'Nuff said.

Now, on to today.

April 7, 2011

Here's what I thought I'd think the entire day:

I can't believe I have to get up early on my birthday.

I can't believe I have to do manual labor on my birthday.

I can't believe I have to sell my awesome VW Beetle on my birthday.

I can't believe I have to take a test I didn't have time to study for on my birthday.

I can't believe I have a six hour shift with nothing to do on my birthday.

Turns out, I'm actually pretty satisfyed with myself. I got things done today. I feel like I'm actually growing up. In the past, I was carefree and relatively stress-free, yet I've had terrible birthdays. But now I have to pay bills, get cars registered, figure out the rest of my college career and after that, the rest of my life, and somehow I feel more satisfied.

I can't believe that despite all the crap I had to do today, that today was actually a pretty good birthday.

Not as good as that one where I got to go to Discovery Zone though. That place was awesome. I mean, it was DZ! Where kids want to be!