twenty-two

My 22nd birthday was on Sunday at first I had my reservations about it, 22 sounded so... adult-like. But despite my reservations, it still occurred, and it turned out to be a very good weekend. I felt very loved by my wonderful friends who threw me a party and by my parents who came up for the weekend and sufficiently spoiled me with good food. 

Considering that I've been a real adult for a year (I know that technically the adult age is 18... but lets be real, none of us were mature enough at 18 to really deserve that title, so I consider the truly adult age to be 21 in most cases) this is what I've learned:

How to...

1. balance a checkbook and create a budget - after several years my mother finally convinced me to do this... it's actually quite helpful

2. walk into J.Crew and not buy anything - kind of a sub-set of the first one but this is legitimately hard for me... so I thought it deserved its own number

3. dress appropriately for a job/internship - unfortunately no matter what I wear I still am told that  I look 17... maybe that will turn out to be a good thing eventually

4. keep my room (and dishes...) relatively clean while living in a dorm - if you could compare last year's dorm room to this one you'd understand

5. pick out my clothes the night before - this one is kind of a work in progress... I only do this part of the time, maybe by 23 I'll have managed this skill

In reality, I definitely don't have my life together and probably never will, but I'm glad that my self-discipline has slightly improved over the past year.

all of my lovely birthday cards from friends and family

Thank you to everyone who made my birthday special, I felt very loved. I'm excited to see what God does in my life while I'm 22.

-nm