What was your favorite birthday (so far)?
The common ones come up - 13, 16 maybe 21? What was it for you?
For me I have to say I chose a classic - 16.
To be honest I'm not sure I recall the exact day. What I recall is the feeling of being 16.
I had a job to pay for gas and my dad gave me a car. A pickup truck actually. My first car was an 1985 Dodge pickup truck, it was tiny and it was red. Sometimes I would leave work and find a parking lot where I could hang out with friends or even just lay in the truck bed and watch the night hang around me.
I loved that car not because it was an impressive machine (it wasn't). I loved the freedom that came with having my own transportation. Yes that freedom was tempered by responsibility - needing to have a job, being designated driver for my younger brother who needed a ride to school or baseball practice or even having to learn how to change the tires and oil. BUT freedom it was. I could go where I wanted and explore the world around me.
16 was one of my first forays into adulthood. I became responsible for paying for things, earning an income and making choices that could impact the rest of my life. I made some bad ones I admit but how great is it that at 16 I had the chance to make some bad choices without suffering lifelong consequences? Maybe I drove when I was too tired or had one drink to many. Maybe I let people ride in the back of the truck while driving to the beach - even though my dad told me not to. Maybe I tested my limits.
I had my first and hopefully only accident in that car. I learned to be careful, to pay attention and that actions have consequences. I spend years paying for the repairs to that truck but the lesson I learned was worth every penny.
What was your favorite birthday? Will you one day look back on this time in your life and decide that 30 was the one, the day when you found yourself or developed confidence?
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I was in denial for the last few months before I turned 30. I was thinking 30 is not a big deal. It's just another birthday. Then, about a month before, I suddenly went, "Oh sh*t, I'm going to be thirty! And I haven't done what I thought I would do with my life at all." I had a minor life crisis realizing that my life was not at all how I thought it would be at 30. Then I sort of sat back and said, "Well, my life is really pretty good. I have a good husband, a wonderful son, a fat and happy dog and a happy home." I think at 30 you are forced to accept yourself and your life, and then you decide how you want to move forward from there.
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