Thank you, for letting me be young.

And now for that post where I pretend like it's exciting and scary to be another year old and I feel completely different from all my years before because I have a NEW DECADE ahead of me!!!

Or not. It is exciting and a little scary to be getting older. The idea of my sand clock letting the grains slip through my fingers is so mind boggling that I have to stop or else I swear I can feel the world spinning around me. I try not to think about that too much. I'm still young and I still have plenty of time. I have accomplished much, and will accomplish much more.

Guess what- I'm over being bitter about having my birthday on Thanksgiving, or dangerously close to the holiday. My mom told me a couple stories about how some family members tried to lump some birthday and Christmas gifts together since my birthday and Christmas are only a month apart. I think somewhere in my toddler and young child mind I grew to resent having my birthday lumped with anything resembling a holiday. After pondering this Thanksgiving night (after asking people to keep my birthday low key because I didn't like the holiday association), I've decided that it's not too big of a deal. Just never give me a Thanksgiving themed cake, okay? Besides, French Silk pie is much better than birthday cake! I still have one piece left. That will be gone tonight.

Getting Birthday wishes from all my friends, all day on my birthday made me feel really loved. Just getting the little texts on my phone and facebook wall posts made my day. I had to work from 7:30-11:30 and I got over 30 messages in those 4 hours. I also got a singing birthday message from my friends who went swing dancing (I couldn't because of work) the night before.

It occurred to me recently that there has been a shift in my friendships. Most of my close friends are all older than I am, be it by a month or many years. Some of my friends are more than twice my age. I have a good amount of friends who are about my age, or a little bit younger, but for the most part I am the younger one in my groups of friends.

The most wonderful part of that? They let me be young. Part of that is I have friends who are young at heart. They're very mature and reasonable adults, but they are all young at heart. They don't push me to "grow up" in the sense that the rest of the world might. I can simply be "my age" (whatever that number really is, and not how many earth-years I have) and be accepted. When I'm playing a character, they tell me to milk the years I can play a young character. I'm playing characters 4 years younger than I am! I enjoy that a lot because when I was 4 years younger, I was very different. I had a lot more holding me back.
My friends don't hold it against me when I don't have the same "life experiences" or don't know all of the references, they teach me. For the most part, I get to feel like I'm the younger sibling, but at the same time I'm treated as a peer.

Thank you all, for letting me be young. Thank you for letting me discover things and learn things. Thank you for knowing that I don't know it all and for taking me in. That is the thing I am most thankful for this year, all of my friends who keep me going.
I'm going to give back to all of you for a moment (it's part of my new thing of trying to not leave things unsaid when I need to say them).


To all of my friends, no matter how well I know you,

I don't know if I will know all of you in two months, two years, ten years, or twenty years. Maybe all I will have known you for is a summer, or a winter, or a school year.
You have all made an impact on me in some small (or large) way, and I'm glad you have. I hope however long we are friends that our times together will be wonderful and shape us into better people. I'm beyond grateful to know you. Thank you for adding to my life.


And that's what I was thankful for on my Turkey-Day Birthday.