18

Last Sunday was my birthday. I turned eighteen. I am a legal adult. I can vote, drive after midnight, for all legal purposes I am considered an adult. Since last year I have been dreading this day. A friend told me a long time ago, when I was turning thirteen that age is just a number. It doesn't really signify anything. But while I know that as far as numbers go eighteen is not much different than seventeen, in my mind it is so much different.

Seventeen saw the start of senior year, my first college experience, moving up a level in gymnastics. I went to Croatia for the third time, I got baptized, I started attending college Bible study at church. Seventeen was a good year. It rested comfortably between two big birthdays: Sixteen and eighteen. At seventeen I was still "one of the highschool kids" and I liked it that way. It was comfortable.

Eighteen will see me graduate highschool, the end of my time in gymnastics, start college full time. Eighteen will force me out of my comfort zone. It will see me become "one of the college kids". And honestly, I don't know if I'll like it that way.

Seventeen was a good year. Eighteen scares me. But at the same time I look forward to what this year will bring.


P.S. I'll post pictures from my sister's wedding (which was the day before my birthday) as soon as I can get some onto my computer!