Coming of age.

So it was my birthday yesterday.

Halfway during coffee and cake, the boyfriend pointed at his iPad and patted me. "Congratulations", he told me.

Perplexed, I was like "???"

Then he showed me this article:



WTFFF. -________________________-

But jokes aside, I had a very peaceful birthday. Amazingly enough, it struck me that this year it didn't occur to me to make a birthday wishlist (i.e. hints to loved ones hehehe) [click *here* for last year's wishlist]. I racked through my brain to see what I would like, but other than to continuously see healthy growth for AZORIAS, and a few business management books (which I will be heading to MPH to place an order soon), I can't really think of what I would like. Of course, I am not going to resist pretty clothes and jewels and bags if you give 'em to me! But I guess what I am saying is that... I am truly happy now. :)

In fact, I am truly happy.. even with growing another year older! I spent a huge part of my early twenties resisting growing old. When I turned 21, I was scared shit of becoming an adult. I always felt that I wasn't ready, if it makes any sense. There are some days (mostly in my first year of work) where I feel like a child in adult's clothes playing an 'adult' game that involved taxes and insurance. The idea of marriage terrified me, the concept of a mortgage was foreign and unreachable. I remember having this conversation with my girlfriends wondering at which point do you suddenly become... an adult. Will we be struck by lightning one day, BOOM, and we will start feeling and acting like an adult, we joked lightheartedly then.

No lightning happened in my case though.

When I hit 25 years old, I went through the cliched quarter-life crisis (surprisingly enough though, a lot of my peers went through the same phase), and breaking up with my first boyfriend of 6 years sure didn't help. That year was spent in a daze, mainly trying to pick up the pieces. The following year when I turned 26, I guess I had all the pieces in hand already, and it was a year of getting to know myself all over again, of discovering myself, of building myself. I felt (and still feel) confident and empowered. Suddenly, the future seems to opened up for me. So did my mind. Suddenly, I am no longer afraid. Whilst I am not ready to get married any time soon, marriage is no longer a taboo subject to me. It's just something that will happen in the future, and it will come when it comes. Buying a property is one of my top priorities now, and whilst I am not anywhere close to owning my first one, I am working real hard towards this goal.

Call it coming of age of whatever, but part of the enjoyment now is to enjoy this... growth, this easing into womanhood and adulthood, and all I really want is to savor each day and each process. :)