Happy Birthday to the "Old"

So…I’m 23

Man, I’m old. Well…at least that’s how a feel some days. I mean at my age, my parents were already married, my grandparents already had one kid – heck a thousand years ago, I’d have been one of the “elders” in a tribe.

What’s funny though…is that it doesn’t bother me anymore. I graduated from college, with a BSN, what does that mean? It means I will be somebody – even if that somebody is just known as “that nurse”. No-one can know haw calming it is to come to this realization, or how calming it is.

I can remember birthdays when I was young, I’d be awake at 7AM, and bounce downstairs – because it was my day. And I couldn’t sit still until after dinner, I didn’t even want to eat cake, just give me the presents!

Then after I turned 21 (remember here in the U.S. that is the “last milestone” in young life) I kind of took a look about it as, wait…1/5 of my life is over (more like 1/4^th) and I would freak out, and try and plan what to do to make the most of my time, and then realize that all the time I had been “planning” I’d been wasting, and then I’d freak out and try to plan “faster”. But, that changed in the last two weeks.

I guess you could say I’ve “mellowed with age”. My birthday is still a day I look forward to, but honestly – on Friday (graduation) I completely forgot it was coming up. Yes it’s special, but it no longer is a day a fear. So what if I only remember part of the first quarter of it, so what if the past 5 years were so slammed that what I remember of them is only bits and pieces. I’ve still got at least one day ahead of me. So why fret.

So unlike when I was little, this birthday has been relatively calm. I did some cleaning, some goofing around, and some thinking. I thought back to graduation, and Christmas and then all the way back to my last birthday. And I have to say, this past year had been great. Not too slammed, not too boring, pretty much par for the course, with the last 4 months leading up to the biggest accomplishment of my life. It’s been one heck of a year.

In this past year, I got my first “real” job, hit a baseball, made some great friends, graduated from college, etc. etc. As you can see – some pretty awesome stuff!. So I guess all there is to do is look forward to the next 365 days. What will they bring? What joys and what elations, what accomplishments, and rewards.

Alright, yes, yes before every one of you pessimists, gets on my case: I know that currently this world is not the most optimistic place. Sure there’s 2 wars in the middle east, North Korea (and Iran) have Nukes. Each day thousands of species of plants and animals disipear from the face of the earth forever, and the president of the United States becomes more and more of a moron.

But what’s there to be worried about? Global Warming? Nuclear Winter, World War 4, The Annihilation of the Environment, and the Extinction of the Human Race? With all that, why not just crawl under the covers, curl up into the fetal position, suck my thumb and wait for it all to end. The point I’m trying to make is, it’s great to think (or worry) about the future, but do it too much, and you won’t be able to move out of the present.

So I’ll look at the positive it that’s ok with you? How about that within a year, I’ll be a registered nurse working in a hospital, driving my own car (a Ford F-150 sounds good) back to my own place. And later that night I’ll go out with a beautiful, intelligent woman (I said I was thinking positively after all!)

But, for now I think I’ll crack the top on a cold beer, put up my feet, and watch the Tigers play the Yankees. I’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow – and it will be ok.

“So Happy Birthday to me, Hooray I’m twenty-three, there’s surely be a lot more, so come on back and celebrate twenty-four.”