In the thought process of years, 20 is a long time. 20 years of marriage is a mile stone. 20 years of friendship. 20 years of….life? How is it that something that seems so long is so young in terms of measured years of life?
This past Monday I turned 20-years-old. I am officially not a child anymore. It is strange to think about because sometimes when I think about it, I just feel so old; however, other times, I just think about how many more years I have left to go.
Some are not as lucky. Over the past 20 years of life, I have lost more friends to things like cancer, car accidents and freak accidents than I have fingers. Even though there has been so many deaths surrounding me, I keep on forgetting to live life to the fullest. For example, my Freshman year, instead of going out with friends and enjoying my first years of college, I spent most of my time laying in bed and watching Netflix. Instead of going out during the summer and enjoying time off from the craziness that is SCAD, I sat in my house and sulked over things that I could not control.
Over time, I was able to kind of come out of my shell so to speak and start to live my life. But the fact still remains that it took me 20 years to value my own life. Tom Hiddleston said something that made me wake up. “Your second life begins when you realize you only have one”. After 20 years of being alive, I’m just now grasping the concept that my life is precious. I do not really understand what desensitized me to the fact that my stupid, lazy life is one of value.
Even if I’m a bit of a late bloomer, understanding the point of why somehow I have beaten the odds of surviving until I am 20 is gift enough for my birthday.