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Rounding Up!

Tuesday, August 15th, 2006

26 Bday.jpg

Ah….26…another step towards maturity or a step towards old age and eventually the winter of your life? The glass is half empty or half full? I don’t know! They say aging is inevitable but is it really? I don’t feel 26 at all. I still fee like I’m 25 years old. But then again, how is 25 or 26 suppose to feel like? Nevertheless I have decided 25 is the perfect age to be! You’re still young enough to have stupid irresponsible fun from time to time but on the other hand, being 25 also means being treated like an adult. You are held accountable for many more things but that makes you seem more mature and sophisticated, which isn’t all that bad. You dress up not because you HAVE to but you WANT to. You start going to nice restaurants and acquire a taste for good wines and expensive champagnes. You really get the best of both worlds at 25!

26 however is a little different. Maybe I am viewing it with a glass half full but when you say 26, doesn’t it feel like it’ll be 30 REAL soon? As much as women hate becoming 30, I’m sure men feel the same. According to the rule of “Rounding Off,” 26, for the sake of ease, is just simply thought as 30. Yeah yeah, you’re going to argue with me, “well doesn’t 25 also round off to 30?” Well that is true but this is my blog so if I say 25 doesn’t round to 30 IT DOESN’T! 25 is just 25, a number smack in the center between 20 and 30. It is neither rounded to 20 or 30!!!

I’ve been thinking why every year when my birthday comes around, I tend to think a whole lot. One of my recent theories is that I see my birthday every year as a marker of some sort. Every year on June 27th, I tend to do a little self reflection, to see what I have done this year but more importantly, what I have accomplished that year. That has to be it, an accomplishment marker! I think I hate the idea of becoming older and feel like I haven’t accomplished ANYTHING! Maybe that’s why I’m not feeling so hot about being 26. I feel like I haven’t progressed somehow? I feel STAGNANT! Sure, I’ve visited more places in Japan or abroad but I don’t consider those accomplishments. Going to Sri Lanka on an anthropological dig to finish your Masters, going into your 4th year in med school and taken your second boards exam and applying to residency programs, passing the bar and becoming an attorney, upon finishing your PhD in Engineering and then decide to take the MCAT and apply to Med School…THOSE are accomplishments. People are struggling but advancing! I can’t say I’m struggling or wallowing in stress right now. In fact, I have not lived a more stress-free lifestyle in my entire life until now. No complaints about my life right now, I love it, it’s surreal! Maybe that’s what scares me. I’m so use to struggling and stressing out that I don’t know how to enjoy the good life. I constantly fear that a stress-free life is making me, the easiest way to say it, “DUMB!” And I have a bad habit of comparing my life with my peers. Is it always greener on the other side?!

Nevertheless, the celebration of my 26th was once again in Japan. I wasn’t expecting anything big but I still had two separate celebrations with the people I care most in Japan. I’m happy about that. Of course one celebration involved more alcohol than the other and I have to say I’m developing an expensive taste for Guinness (beer from Ireland). I’m not really into dark beer but Guinness is somewhat unique! I wonder if my alcohol tolerance has increased count as an accomplishment I can be proud of ?! Ex Malo Bonum! An old Latin saying, out of evil good is born! I just wanted to say that somewhere!