I’ve never been a huge birthday person. I mean, I guess when I was little and my mom through me huge parties with piñatas and streamers and ice-cream cake, I loved it, but everything after that was kind of a birthday let down. This year was different though. I decided to totally hype up my birthday, throw myself a huge birthday party (one that would make my mom proud), and actually celebrate the fact that I’m another year older. It was great. I had something to be excited about.
And then I woke up the next morning and realized that I was 22. I was 22! I had spent so much time planning my actual birthday that I hadn’t taken even a minute to think about the fact that I am absolutely not a kid anymore.
22 just sounds old!
I really wish that somebody had prepared me for this moment. So in an effort to send out good karma, I’m warning you guys ahead of time: turning 22 is not all it’s cracked up to be. Here’s everything I didn’t know about turning 22:
1. They didn’t lie when they said 21 is your last milestone birthday for a while. Here I am…22…waiting for, what? 50? Okay I guess I’ll just wait here patiently!
2. 22-year-olds are all stuck in a weird limbo. Are we teenagers? Nope, but we definitely feel like them. Are we adults? Nope, and we definitely don’t want to be them either. Somebody draw me a map. I am so, so lost.
3. Parents expect 22-year-olds to have accomplished a lot. Have you gotten a full time job yet with health benefits and a huge salary and dental insurance and the blood of a virgin and a partridge in a pear tree? Seriously like finishing all 10 seasons of Friends was my biggest accomplishment of the year. So PLEASE stop asking!
4. Oh and speaking of parents, it suddenly becomes completely unacceptable to bring your clothes home from college to do laundry. I’m not responsible enough for this! I have more important things to do (like watch Friends, remember?)
5. It’s no longer new and cool and fun to be of legal drinking age. Being 21 is SO last year. Drinking used to be an activity. Now it’s more like a lifestyle.
6. Being 22 means that you’re still young enough to be expected to have enough time to do everything but you’re also trying to do EVERYTHING and there is just not enough time in the day. I swear I even fall asleep standing up these days.
But hey, being 22 can’t be too bad, right? Taylor Swift doesn’t seem to think so. And Taylor Swift lyrics are basically my bible so you know I’ll be listening to the wise words of my day 1, Tay.