The year 2016 will bring many things! We will elect a new president, the iPhone 7 will be released, maybe Leonardo DiCaprio will win his Oscar and I myself, along with all the other 1996 babies, will be turning 20 years old. Turning 20 doesn't seem like a big deal to some. It's not like turning 21 when you get the privilege of being the legal drinking age, but now you're no longer by definition a teenager. NineTEEN will be the last year you can consider yourself a teenager. Yes, at the age of eighteen you officially become an adult, but buying a lottery ticket didn’t really make me feel more grown up. However, when I tell myself that I will be 20 years old I instantly feel old, and this does make me tense up.
I sound a little pathetic when I say that I am a little nervous when it comes to turning 20, I will admit that. I mean who wouldn’t want to be 20? It's the perfect age of having the least amount of responsibility, yet enough independence. It sounds like the perfect age, but when I think of being 20 I think of the beginning years of my adult life. In one year I can legally drink, two years I will graduate college, three years I will begin my career (fingers crossed), my mom said she sees me married by 26 and a baby by 28. WAIT! Can we slow down? It feels like yesterday I was just in the fourth grade turning 10 years old, so excited that I had finally reached double digits, and now we are talking about marriage and a family in 6 years?!
That’s the funny thing, as kids we are so eager to grow up, probably because of the fascinating idea of being independent. Now that I am growing up, I wouldn’t mind taking it back to the days when my parents took care of everything I needed and my biggest stress in life was having the best pack of Crayola crayons. But all those things that scared me about growing up deep down I am actually excited for. I mean who doesn’t want to go chill at the bar next year, and earn their diploma in two, start the rewarding and life changing career in three, and begin your very own family in six. I think the scary part about it all is the fear of the unknown. We all know life has its difficulties, and in no way will our journey be easy, but as we grow up we experience life and prepare ourselves for whatever life might throw our way. All of the big life events that have happened in those 20 years, good and bad, have made me, me. So whatever comes in the next 20 will only help make me a better me. Thinking back to how different life was 10 years ago and how different I was 10 years ago, and imagining life 10 years from now, I probably will be freaking out over turning 30.
We are growing up, it’s inevitable, but it isn’t just about growing old, it is about growing into ourselves. Being a better person, the one that is more experienced, the one that will learn from one's mistakes. Growing into a role model for the people growing up under us. Turning 20 doesn’t mean I will have to turn into the adult that only drinks coffee, worries about taxes, and gets liver spots; I can be the 20-year-old that still likes Disney movies, chicken fingers and striving to be the person that I want to be. So bring it on 20! I won't let turning 20 scare me — I am going to rock my twenties, just wait and see.
