Turning 21 at Wellesley

On the day I turned twenty-one, it became legal for me to consume alcohol in any country in the world. However, turning twenty-one in college is tricky business. I deferred from Wellesley for a year and am therefore, about a year older than all of my sophomore friends. When making plans for celebrating my most exciting birthday (to date) I ran into a wall. Should I compromise by doing something on campus or in Boston that was all ages or 18+? Or should I leave some of my closest friends out of the fun because I’d rather be bar hopping?

What I came up with was fantastic, but the way it played out was even better. I should probably explain that my parents live overseas and so we, as a family, are big fans of celebrating when everyone can make it, even if the birthday is two or three weeks earlier or later. My junior year of high school my first birthday cake was a full month before I turned seventeen. My dad told me he knew he wasn’t going to be there and he still wanted to watch me blow out the candles. With that in mind I decided to plan a two-pronged event.

I decided that what made the most sense was to call the weekend after my birthday my “birthday weekend” and celebrate on both Friday and Saturday. I knew that asking for too much input would result in complete and utter chaos so I decided on a venue for my under-21 party and began planning. I decided on bowling on Friday and barhopping on Saturday, and whoever could make it was welcome to attend either event. I was then informed that it was imperative that I go out on the night of my actual birthday (I believe free drinks were mentioned) and three parties seemed like just enough for me.

About a week before this was all set to go, my mother called and told me she had changed her flight reservation so she would be able to spend my birthday with me. This is basically how that conversation went:

“Oh, well. Yeah, I’m so glad you’ll be here. You know, it’s my twenty-first birthday, right?”

“Yes, Anna, I think I know that better than you.”

“Ok, well I plan on drinking.”

“Yes I’d heard something about that being the thing to do in America.”

“Yeah…so…”

“Well, I’ll DD.”

It was pretty hard to argue with that. As my birthday approached, I reminded everyone in my immediate surrounding that I had six, four, two days left until my birthday. My roommate’s mantra became,“It’s not your birthday yet!”

The day before my birthday I recovered from rugby practice by watching the Olympics and half-heartedly rewriting a paper. I received a text from my best friend (“Three hours ‘til legal drinkinnnnggggggg!!!!”) and was told I needed to go to the basement. I walked downstairs and saw a beautiful cake (funfetti, with pink funfetti frosting) that had the number ‘21’ in sprinkles. Embarrassingly, I’m pretty sure I gasped. And right on cue, my entire team and my Wellesley friends jumped out from behind furniture and threw balloons at me. Even more embarrassing – I’m pretty sure I cried. Well, a few tears leaked out. I mean, come on, friends, cake and balloons – how much better does it get? We all trooped up to my friends room to celebrate some more and that was my first 21st birthday party.

The next day I went in to Boston with my mom and some rugby friends. We talked about everything from the Olympics to career decisions to gossip about the team’s escapades on and off the field. And that was party number two.

By the time the weekend rolled around, I was getting a little frantic trying to make sure that every tiny detail came together. Wellesley friends and I headed into the city and met up with my Boston friends at the T. We went candlestick-pin bowling, which basically means the bowling balls are the size of grapefruits. We cheered for losses and wins equally and danced to Lady Gaga as we each made our way down the lanes.
The next night my friend from home came up to Boston and we went to a bar suggested by her sorority sisters. Though the bar was a bust, it was fun dancing with her and we came back to Wellesley to party some more on campus.

Every single part of my birthday celebration was amazing. The best part was that all of the people who are important in my life were able to celebrate with me. Though I doubt I’ll be able to replicate the experience, I hope I spend every birthday surrounded by as many people and as much love.