24

More than two weeks ago, I turned 24. It still hasn't hit me that I'm now firmly established in my mid-20s. If someone asked me how old I am, it would probably take me two tries to get to 24, and it probably will for a couple of months (just like how I mistakenly put the wrong year in the date until mid-February because I was just so used to it being 2007--it was 2007 for a whole year). What makes me feel old more than anything else, even more than the fact that I'm older than all the new starlets and pop idols, is that I am now a year older than Monica and Rachel were when Friends first started. When I was 12 years old watching that show, the characters on it epitomized adulthood more than anyone else in the world and I've kind of carried that idea with me as I've grown up. Even though I realize now how ridiculous their lives were and that people their age with their jobs would never have been able to afford the apartments they lived in, I still feel like I've accomplished so little when I compare myself to them. That's probably why you shouldn't compare yourself to fictional television characters. That and it's kind of irrational and crazy. It's like having low self-esteem because Superman can fly, stop a speeding car just by standing in front of it, and come out relatively unscathed from a gunfight, but no matter how many times you try any of those things, you end up in the hospital.

Even though it's late in coming, here's my favorite picture from my birthday celebration that was very thoughtfully planned by a very good friend:

I felt very special and not really very old at all.