Honest Thoughts on 26

For me, August 31st means turning another year older. I was trying to remember when that stopped being an event I anticipated, and I think that 22 marked the last birthday I was truly excited to be older. After 22, each successive age has been less and less welcomed! I am completely aware that I am NOT old, at least relative to most peoples' standards, whatever those might be. And yes, I avoided saying relative to normal standards, since I have spent today in Stats class and have to admit that I don't know what "normal standards" of population age are [nerd alert, I know]. Being thrown back into an undergraduate environment [because though I'm in graduate school with other grad students, 18 year olds are the majority on campus], makes me feel self conscious about my age. One advantage of being in the working world was that I was always the youngest person around. Now, even in my graduate cohort, I am one of the oldest, since a lot of PhD students in Clinical Psychology come straight out of undergrad or don't take three years off of school like I did. One consolation is that I have been told, on numerous occasions, that I look 22. That's right, the age at which I wanted to freeze time! And no, I did not pay people to say this. Most people honestly assume that I am 22 and straight out of undergrad. I am beginning to question what harm there could be in letting people assume what they want. For instance, today in class, everyone was discussing my birthday tomorrow - what we should do for it, how old I was going to be. For whatever reason, someone said I was going to be 25 [they know I graduated college in 07], and though I tried to correct them, everyone kept repeating that I was going to be 25, and I just stopped trying to change it. I would love to be turning 25 again! :) I realize how negative this all sounds - basically a mourning of my birthday. I'm also aware that though I might look four years younger, in the four years since 22, I have changed so much. In that sense, I don't really want to be 22 again. I wouldn't want to lose the intervening four years of growth, friendships, and invaluable experiences, and I know that the path that has lead me here has been purposefully and uniquely mine. So here's to 26 and another blessed year of life!