Turning older is just the nature of being alive on planet Earth and it's something we have grown accustomed to throughout the years. Once a year we normally set aside a day to recognize that yes, we did indeed manage to survive one more year. As the years have passed, we involved other traditions like cutting cake and blowing up balloons, but we normally just love spending time with our closest friends and family. When you are younger, you really start to count the birthdays that go by with little milestones. When you turn thirteen, you are technically a teenager and thus infinitely cooler than you were at twelve. When you turn fifteen, you can try out for your driver's permit and the very next year you can try and get your license. Eighteen years old normally brings graduation and of course at twenty one you are considered an "adult" and get to appreciate the privileges that accompany that title.
However, this year I turned twenty years old and it wasn't until the actual day of my birth that I realized how weird that age really was. Personally, I thought nineteen was a weird age because there was nothing on that day that made it stand out any more than any other age. I suddenly didn't gain the ability to legally purchase alcohol or go blow my money in the nearest casino. Granted, I wouldn't do these things even if I were capable of doing so, but none the less there is a sense of victory knowing that you could. However, this year I discovered that the age twenty is not only similar in limitation, it's actually worse.
At twenty years old, you are living in some sort of freakish age limbo. You are not yet technically considered an "adult", but you also lose that seemingly cooler title of teenager. You are like some sort of mutated infant-adult and there is no cure until the next birthday rolls around. Giving yourself the title of a "twenty-year old", while being at this awkward half-way point in life, also makes you feel so much older than you were before. Perhaps it is because you lose the "teen" at the end of your age, but saying that you are a nineteen year old college student just sound so different than claiming that you are a twenty year old college student. There is only one year difference in age, yet it somehow feels like an eternity.
Overall, twenty is such a weird age, but you don't really feel like it is until your twentieth birthday rolls around. You are old enough for people to actually start treating you seriously, but young enough to still have silly moments and goof off. It is an odd experience, but I have a feeling I will be saying similar things once the next birthday comes around. Getting older is always weird and there is little you can do to escape this fact.
