Seriously, when on earth did that happen? When I was a kid the years seemed to drag, and now whole months can zip by and leave my head spinning.
I've been thinking about turning 20 recently. Along with the demise of my 'she's just a teenager' excuse and the rapidly approaching big 2-1 with ultimate responsibility (dear lord, can't I just stay a teenager?!), I have come to realise that current perceptions of middle-agedom are wrong. Being middle-aged doesn't mean you're halfway through your life. Death is so unpredictable that it's foolish to call 40s-50s middle-aged, because who says we're even going to get that far?
I am middle-aged. This midway point, here, is to be middle-aged. Stuck between childhood and adulthood, I'm treading water as I learn to swim in this real world. A world full of full-time work, bills and budgeting. It's similar to the paddling pool filled with all of my childhood friends, my parents' warm embraces and a whole lot of Nintendo merchandise - but a lot deeper, a lot more scary.
I'm working on staying afloat right now, and hopefully one day soon I'll feel ready to strike out into the ocean and all it's possibilities.
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