Today is my birthday. I am twenty seven. This is the first birthday that I have thought, “I’m getting old.” I am wondering if I can still classify myself as being in my mid-twenties. I don’t think so.
I have loved my twenties. It has been my best decade. Besides celebrating my birthday this month, I am also celebrating the time when I became a Christian. It was seven years this month.
Today I have been thinking about all my birthdays and have been able to recall some details from the past ten years. I don’t have the best memory so I thought it would be good to write them down for posterity’s sake.
1998: I turned seventeen. This was the first week of my senior year of high school. I had a pool party at my house on Red Gum. It was the first big party that I had as a teenager. It was a big deal for me. I gave out invitations, invited girls and boys, and had a great time. It was an innocent party. My parents were there and stayed in their room for most of the night. I have good memories of that party.
1999: I turned eighteen. It was my first week of college at UF. Christian had just been born earlier that week. I was living in Simpson Hall with my random roommate, Michelle, and had just finished rushing a sorority. On my actual birthday, the sorority was having some sort of induction and I was wearing a white skirt and a white eyelet shirt.
2000: I turned nineteen. I was planning on moving out of the sorority house and ditching the sorority, which I did. I celebrated with my friend Tara over at Campus Lodge.
2001: I turned twenty. Jen and I had just moved in to an apartment at Treehouse Village. I had just become a Christian a couple of weeks before when I had been home for summer break. I had been baptized in the ocean at Jupiter Beach. I was starting my last year of college.
2002: twenty one. I had just graduated from college and moved to Orlando. Brynne was starting graduate school at UCF and we moved in together. I went to Wet n Wild for the day. I was on the hunt for a job and ended up starting soon after as a server at Buca di Beppo.
2003: I turned twenty two in Amsterdam. I had been working at the hostel for less than a month. We had a birthday celebration at dinner and ate homemade cake. Johanna, the manager and my mentor for the year, was at dinner that night. I received a big teddy bear pillow from my Shelter mates.
2004: I was still in Amsterdam and had just returned from my travels to Italy and Poland. Madelinde made me a cake and I had a delicious Greek meal for dinner. I sprained my ankle that night running up the stairs of the Shelter City and flew to Finland the next day to see Johanna, my roomie.
2005: I turned twenty four as Chad’s girlfriend. We had only been dating for a month and we went out to dinner to a Mexican restaurant with Kathy, Sarha, and Rosie. I was living with Kathy and Sarha at the time. I had recently lost my job at House of Hope and was unemployed. Soon after, I got my job as a Language Arts teacher at Freedom.
2006: I turned twenty five as Chad’s fiance. We had gotten engaged in June, on our eleven month anniversary. We went to my parent’s house for my birthday weekend and Pat and Dale came along as well. We went out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory and Pat bought me a Nintendo DS. I had just started working at TFA and was living in the “inside-outside house” with Sarha.
2007: I turned twenty six as Chad’s wife. We were living in our cozy little place at Park North. We went to Babbo’s in College Park and had dinner with Tina, Erin, Jessica, Hannah, Richard, Wes, Suzanne, and Natalie.
2008: Here I am today, recently having moved from Florida to NYC. Chad and I met at Central Park for a picnic lunch. I am unemployed and hoping to get a job offer this week. We are moving out of the mouse house/cub at the end of this week into our own place.
