This year has been a doozy, that’s for sure. It has been a ride as I prepare for my senior year. Not just that, I am also preparing to turn 21! April 5th. This time it’s on a weekend, which I feel so blessed for. I hate birthdays on weekdays due to having to figure out others’ schedules and so forth. At first, I didn’t care about turning 21, thinking it was just another birthday, but then I got questioned about what I was doing to celebrate. So then I had to come up with a plan.
My goal is to go to Top of the Stairs for the first time. Top of the Stairs is THE place, the bar that will break your fake IDs instantly! So for me to go it’s an honor. A privilege. A rite of passage. I am going to bring a group of my friends to go, have a good time, and try to relax for once. This semester has been kicking me in the butt, so to have a day to relax and do my thing would be a dream.Â
At the bar, I am going to be dressed up. What this means is not wearing my usual joggers, but instead the cute going-out clothes I got from the Christiansburg Plato’s Closet. The sorority girls must be donating to this location because every time I go, I find the cutest clothes that actually make me feel pretty.
After hanging out with friends and being social, I want to change into pajamas at home and play The Sims. Now I know that seems quite uneventful, but this is my dream. I haven’t had the time to play The Sims in what feels like years, and being able to play with my saved households, where the drama that is happening in the game isn’t happening to me in real life, is an invigorating feeling. That’s the only plan I have for the day.
I don’t know what else to do about it. I mean, it’s not going to be that crazy due to my insane schedule of things to do. The day before my birthday is the Geoscience Research Symposium where I will be presenting a research poster as well as a piece of artwork I submitted to be judged at the adjacent Geoscience Art Symposium. Then, I only have two weeks after my birthday to be ready for Little Women that will be from April 23-26th at the Moss Arts Center. You can see how my birthday was not a thought.Â
I just feel like my birthday will be split into two: one part for my friends and me not to feel like a social outcast, and the other part will be Brooklyn’s chill time. I think it’s important to have both because I have time to love my friends and also time to love myself.
I am grateful though that I made it to another birthday. Some days it feels like I am going to self-combust at any moment. Little me had assumed that the world was going to end when I turned 16, but it didn’t; instead I have preserved and made it to this point. 21 means that you are an official adult, the training wheels are gone, and now you are on your own. You may stumble and fall, but over time you can ride on your own. Before you know it, you’ll be zipping down the streets. It’s crazy because I already felt like an adult once I went to Disney for the College Program. I make my doctor appointments with the help of my grandma….sometimes. I have a job. I budget my money, sort of. I figured out my own Airbnb reservation for spring break! What else is there? Well, that is the title of being 21. I feel myself going into my birthday now excited to embrace the change and hopeful that I may grow an inch or two. What? Birthday miracles are a thing.
