Time To Bottle Me Up; I'm Starting To Ferment...

There’s nothing
that makes you take stock of your life more than the passing of another birthday. That annual event crept up on me, once again, this past weekend. The excitement and anticipation of birthdays seemed to end for me after a rollicking 13th birthday slumber party at the Howard Johnson in Omaha. Life was simpler then…
I’ve been aging ever since.

Not that I’m old…quite yet, but I can no longer fudge the "young adult / adulthood" line anymore ~ as much as I’ve enjoyed it in years past.

No. Now my growth has reached its crest, and I can almost feel the calcium beginning to leach from my bones.

Time To Bottle Me Up; I’m starting to ferment.
But I plan to age well. I’m now at an age that I very much embrace the fact that most people guesstimate that I’m younger than I actually am. I hate to break it to them, and most times I don’t. Revealing the truth, would, in a way, spoil the enigma.

For years, I’ve been the reluctant birthday girl. There were times when I stayed home and ignored the incoming voicemails and well-wishes-- purely because I didn’t want to acknowledge the coming of another year (and the subsequent pressure of finding a way to celebrate, as one is supposed to do on occasions such as these.)

Most of the time, my birthday qualms have been totally irrational. At sixteen, I spent the afternoon crying. Having discovered my first ‘smile wrinkle,’ I flipped out.

“I’m getting wrinkles!”

I vowed never to smile again. Luckily that didn’t last…or else, three rounds of braces would’ve been for naught. At 23, I had a major birthday breakdown because by that age, it occurred to me that I’d lived longer than two of my very good friends who passed away before me. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I would continue to move forward in life while their lives had ended prematurely.

Today, however, I see possibility. I’ve learned something from the ones I’ve lost just as much as all the other people who have touched me in my lifetime so far. Today, I realize that no matter what I accomplish from here on out, I’ll know that the purpose of life, its meaning for me, will only be revealed to me if I’m open to the journey ahead. Adventures await…

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A Toast To Another Year Of Me!

*Perfect grapes photo by me*
Copyright © 2007 Kendra Liedle