Bags packed sitting on the seat next to me, headphones in my laptop ready to bleep out the other passengers and my ticket in hand. Heading to school this weekend is different. It isn’t like it used to be when I was coming home from a holiday break or just for the weekend. This weekend the first member of the $quad turns 21. A magical number that has so much meaning yet so much responsibility at the same time.

She will no longer have to sneak alcohol from her parents' bar and fill it back up with water to make it seem like nothing was missing, she will no longer be using that overpriced fake ID from a state she knows nothing about, she is now legal. By legal she is able to walk into a liquor store and give her actual ID for whatever she wants and not be nervous that they will ask her the address on her ID that she has memorized over and over. Let’s face it though the first time we use our fakes to buy alcohol we feel our hearts running right through our chests until we get out of the store in a clean getaway. That feeling of being a badass and having that adrenaline rush is something we now crave. She will no longer have that. She is now able to explore the world of bars and clubs. 21 birthdays are now becoming the new fad for my friends. Thinking back there were many other birthdays that were just as popular and that were way over the top.

In elementary school, everyone had a birthday party or multiple ones at the famous craft places. You know the ones where everyone sits around a long table and the birthday girl/boy sits at the head in a huge chair. In front of each child, there was the same white, plain, clay object with a little circle of paints and a small paint brush that they expected us to make a masterpiece with. Let’s be honest, there was never the right skin color for the people models and the colors they gave us just didn’t work. Cups of water and A LOT of paper towels lined the table because we all know what happens when you mix children and paint. Once everyone on the guest list has arrived, the painting can commence. Everyone paints their own little figure and then the group goes into “the party room”. This mysterious room was filled with black lights and crazy neon lights which nowadays any frat party we go to has in each room but back then it was the greatest invention since sliced bread. We would dance and play games for an hour then pizza and cake came, once all was said and done, Happy Birthday was sung, everyone’s parents showed up and the party ended.

Then it was “cool” to have one of those birthday parties until you turned 16. Everyone is familiar with the super sweet sixteen show MTV hosted a while back, that teenage girls force their parents to throw these extravagant birthday parties spending an absurd amount of money on. Buying multiple dresses that their daughters will only wear once, big centerpieces that weddings don’t even have, belly dancers, fire breathers, they have it all at these parties. The best is the fact that these kids just got their permits to learn to drive and most expect a BMW or Mercedes at the end of the party. If you ask me, my sweet sixteen was a big party, don’t get me wrong I did the whole candle ceremony thanking my family and friends for being in my life and what not, but I didn’t walk out with a car, or a bill that was just as much as my parents mortgage. Now most people are content with having a few friends over, birthday cake and presents. Girls on Long Island are another story. If you didn’t get invited to a sweet sixteen you took it personally and each girl tried to out do the ones before hers. Thinking back to the craft birthday parties we had in elementary school these birthday bashes do indeed take over as the new fad for birthdays at this age.

So first we had the craft parties, then super outrageous sweet sixteens. Now we have the 21 bashes. When you hear someone is turning 21 you think okay who will be holding her hair back at the end of the night when she is face down in a toilet saying the famous regrets of “I am never drinking ever again” we all say that from time to time. This weekend one of my friends is turning 21. I’m not sure what to expect but I know it is the new fad for us. Looking back at the other birthdays that have been celebrated in this fashion I realize that these years are special for a reason. We should share them with the people close to us and the people that make us happy. I am so thankful to have met the people I did in college and I know that paired with my best friends that have spent every birthday with me since the craft parties and sweet sixteens that they will all be by my side for my 21st in a couple months.

The next big celebration everyone will be going to is bridal showers, weddings and baby showers. The best part about celebrating these special events is the people who you share it with! You can have the same best friends sitting and painting a clay heart, standing by your side in your candle ceremony telling them how special they are to you, they can be sitting next to you at the bar handing you shots or next to the toilet holding your hair back, they could be your bridesmaids or even godparents to your future children. People go through life and are always saying “remember when...” and to me thinking back to all these special birthdays I have celebrated, I wouldn’t change any of them because the people I spent them with are what made them special. I can truly say that my best friends right now are going to be standing at the bar with me, like they sat next to me painting hearts in elementary school, just like they helped me light candles for my sixteenth birthday, and I know they will be along for the whole ride because they are true friends. I cannot wait to venture into the world of “twenty-fun” and I know that my friends will continue to be by my side.

We all do the Throwback Thursday posts on Instagram, and looking back at all these pictures you remember the times you spent with these people whether it was at one of these birthday celebrations or something else. Don’t forget the past because it is what helps make your future.