Tomorrow I will be 22. I would be completely lying if I said "it feels like yesterday that I turned 21"... it feels about a century ago that I turned 21. It's safe to say this was the longest year of my life. When in fact, it was a mere 12 months ago when I was seated in a very loud, very drunken limo, holding a bottle of champagne screaming "Party in the USA" at unsuspecting motorists who happened to be sharing the road with our very entertained driver. (To my dearest friends who were there that night, thank you for managing to get me to my heart's classy desire of a destination, C&J's, though you were in such poor states yourselves. I am looking forward to a repeat of this when I'm home from London - maybe not in a limo but definitely screaming at some innocent bystanders, making fools of ourselves like we so often do when we celebrate each others birthdays, and just days in general).
After a few mealtime heart to heart conversations with some amazing people I've met here in London, I've adopted a new mentality, my 22-year-old mantra perhaps: What's the worst that can happen? Not in that reckless idiotic kind of way, just kind of a content surrender to the fact that life is going to do whatever it wants to you. That doesn't mean you don't have a say - on the contrary it means you should speak up as often as possible because otherwise life will literally just waltz right past you. Its a sweet little reminder to not sweat the little stuff and instead be comforted by the blessings that you have. Because most of the time, the "worst that can happen" isn't that bad in the first place, and if it is - which I have definitely felt, like so many of us have - then it happened for a reason.
Really though, this is quite weird being here in London without my family or friends around me, especially since its my first birthday without a phone call from my dad. Even when I was at school I would get the typical "happy birthday" song recorded on my voicemail. I still have one saved. I already got my first birthday present today which was - soo typical of London - a rainy, humid summer day with a surprise ending: an insanely beautiful sunset. My dad's way of saying happy birthday.
this song seems appropriate :)
