I love being 29 years old. I love it.
When I turned 25 years old, I nearly thought it was the end of the world. There I was, in a wheelchair, living with my parents, and putting my PhD on hold. I had no serious boyfriend. My friends were off doing God knows what without me. My life consisted of physical therapy and doctor's visits.
But I was also unsure of myself. At that age, you're kind of put in a position to finally pick a path in life -- no more screwing around.
At 29, everything is so different.
School -- I love school. I really love learning and coming to class to hear a new lecture. In my early 20's, school was about loving kegger parties and boys.
Friends -- forget everything you have ever went through with your friends up until this point. Right now, I am experiencing friends giving birth, getting married, moving in together... all of the wonderful life experiences one can have, and I'm lucky to be a part of that.
And dating -- games aren't played anymore. It is literally, "listen, I really dig you", or "listen, this is isn't going to go anywhere". There is more stability in dating at my age. I mean, there's a reason since the day I started liking boys, the guys I went for were at least 4 years older than me.
Not to mention, I'm more confident in myself than I ever was. Not in an ego-way, but just confident in a 'who you are' type of way. I may not be involved in any kind of serious relationship right now, and I may not have a job I come home being 100% proud of, but at the end of the day, I know everything will be okay. In two years, I'll be finished school. Some day, some guy will learn how to wrangle my wild, crazy ways (very few have been able to) and I'll be an awesome girlfriend. And in the Fall, I'll be working at a hospital. That's not so bad for 29 years old.
I know what I want in life, I know what I want in a person I want to be with and even though I'm not exactly sure how to get there, I'm going to make sure I have a whole lot of fun doing it. Life doesn't have to be taken so seriously -- it really shouldn't be. But at the same time, life shouldn't be wasted. Life shouldn't be taken for granted and left waiting around for shit to happen. Before you know it, time will fly and you'll be sure to miss out on all the things you should have, and not could of had.
And although I'm 29, there are a million things I haven't experienced yet. For instance, falling in love. Sure, I've been in relationships before, but I don't think I've ever really felt what being in love was like. And I'm happy to wait... I know I'll eventually feel it. Even though my friends like to say I'm really picky, I just like to think I'm confident in what I'm looking for. I want someone who can be my best friend, someone to have an awesome time with, to have fun with, someone who will be the cause of my laugh lines when I'm old and wrinkly, and someone who can be my inspiration. Or to be able to wake up in the morning with someone, look over at him and think, what can I do to make this the most awesome day of your life? I just haven't met anyone this far worth putting that extra effort in. Not necessarily right now, but it'll happen.
I never liked that whole "everything happens for a reason" crap -- MAKE things happen for a reason.
