Up to this point in our young lives, we’ve had a few milestone birthdays: 13, 16, 18, 21. Each signifies a different beginning to a new stage of life: teenhood, young adulthood, driving, drinking, new responsibilities. These landmark birthdays are integral parts of the coming-of-age process. So then what happens when you run out of them?
In our culture we are trained to get excited for our birthdays. We're told that the day you came out of your mother's vagina is worth celebrating, and each year you deserve presents and praise for that reason alone. As a child, you always look forward to your birthday. Remember when you would bring cupcakes or Munchkins donut holes into school for all your friends? You would dress up in your nicest cutest outfits and everyone would be looking at you and admiring you all day.
In middle and high school, your birthday got even better. Your parents started to give you serious stuff, like car access, clothes, and other more "adult" presents. Your friends decorate your locker with fun pictures and signs, they actually buy you gifts with money they made from their part-time jobs and sooooo many people you barely speak to write "Happy Birthday!" on your Facebook wall. You even get a huge, ridiculously expensive party at 16 where all your friends dance awkwardly in formal clothing while your old distant family watches.
And then 18 is pretty cool. You know, can legally purchase cigarettes. You can apply for the draft. You're considered an adult in the eyes of the government but still living at home and still a teenager. Cool. Then 20 is kinda cool. Hitting a new decade, and closer to 21 than ever before.
We wait for 21 for what feels like forever. Since maybe 16, we think about how cool it'll be to be so adult but still kiddish, and of course, to be able to go out to bars and drink legally. People have crazy huge parties and celebrations for 21, perhaps the biggest birthday celebration to date. I can easily argue that 21 is the final fun milestone birthday. We waited for 21 for so long, and we hold on to that fun age the entire year. So, when it comes time for 22, it's just a reminder that your birthday last year was much more significant. And now, you're just old.
When you realize that your time as a 21-year-old is almost up, it's a very strange experience. Since we're so used to getting excited for our birthdays, we initially feel that excitement. But you remember that 21 is gonna be over, and you'll never be that young again. And then you realize that you're finally not dying to become a certain age anymore, and you don't have any number to look forward to. So when it gets close to your birthday again you don't round up your age a few weeks before like you would usually do. In fact, you finally dread saying that evil number out loud, and hold onto 21 until those very last seconds the night before your birthday.
That evil little 2 signifies the beginning of the end: the end of looking forward to birthdays; the end of being a student; the end of your time not stuck in an office, corporate chains suffocating you until age 65. And what's next to look forward to? Death? Or worse, 30?! As we dive deeper into our 20s, we'll face things that we've never faced before: rent, loans, debt, scrounging for money, working full time (hopefully in a job that we look forward to and trained all of college for, but no promises), entering the "real world." I've written a lot of articles and thought a lot about being a senior in college and graduating and becoming a functioning adult in the real world. None of that scares me more than saying I'm 22 years old.
I guess I can't complain completely about 22. Although it is the last year of college, you realize that you need to soak up those final few months. The last year of being student means you have to fully enjoy your time and realize that things are going to be different after this point. And entering your adult life at 22 isn't really that scary; apparently, "nobody likes you when you're 23."
The Old T Swift (RIP) sings to us that feelin' 22 is a great feeling. It's true; we are happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time, and it is indeed miserable and magical. For those of us entering into this age soon, do not fret. Just remind yourself that you'll never be this young again at that moment in time, and that should make you feel much better.
