In the coming weeks of exams, I will, for the first time in my university career, not have an exam on my birthday. Instead, I have two of my hardest exams the day before … HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.
This December I will officially be out of my teens; I am turning 20. I don’t know how to feel about it. Age really lost its significance to me when I hit 19. I’m sure 19 was the age for everyone since every college student loves to party and get wasted. For me, 19 just meant I could visit casinos — but that’s another story. Nineteen really is the last milestone in Ontario, unless a lot of people are anxious to rent a car.
Nothing special is going to change in me on my birthday. When I wake up, I’ll probably be thinking about how good it feels to be done my exams, or how nice it’ll be to go home. I know there won’t be a sudden switch in my personality. I know, if anything, I’ll be even less mature because I’ll probably be watching anime or playing <em>Smash</em>.
I’ve never been a party person, any of my friends can attest to that. I’d rather stay in than go out, especially with this weather — good gawd, how do the girls in short skirts put up with this damn weather every Friday? To their dedication to the club, I say good-on-ya. Anyway, yeah, not a big drinker. In fact, I like to be in my apartment by nightfall; can’t really explain why, I guess I’m just a homebody (as my mother often states). So my birthday is one of the few times of the year I’ll be going out to drink (where drink is read as “get a little tipsy”).
Frankly, at 19, I already feel like an old lady. My eyesight is going to shit, so I’m wearing my glasses more and more, I’m actively knitting for fun, and I have no idea what the kids are listening to these days because my radio is tuned strictly to CBC Radio 1. Over the summer, I came very close to telling them damn neighbourhood kids to get off my property. My career goals mostly include a government office job with a sweet, sweet pension. Instead of turning 20, I feel like I’m already 60.
I guess I’m not really mature. It was only this year I finally entered the technology age and got online banking. I still haven’t gotten my G license, though I do have an M2, so that sort of makes up for it. I guess I’m just old fashioned. I still live in a world were TV is relevant and people take cars everywhere, not public transportation. A world where winter means wearing ski jackets, hats, gloves, scarfs, and heavy boots to make it through the knee-high snow. A world where dinner is chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, and boiled carrots as a side three nights a week, and the other nights it’s pork tenderloin, plus a wild card night on Friday.
Maybe it’s my small-town mindset. I like the quiet of the countryside, the slow pace of Sundays, and the darkness of a starry night. I’m not a city person, I will openly admit that. Hell, I often tease my friends about their fancy city schools with their fancy IB programs. My school didn’t have that, that’s for sure. My school sure as hell didn’t have them goddamn robotic clubs.
It’s funny, even though I’ll be turning 20, my parents will probably still say I’m 18. My mother often forgets my age (but my mother often calls me by my sister’s name so … my hopes aren’t exactly high). Like I said before, age is really an abstract thing. Outside of the law, what do we use it for? Age doesn’t dictate where we should be in life: look at our university. There are mature students and students who have skipped grades. People who have returned for a second degree after their first, or people who switched programs midway through their degree. Look at me: I thought I was going to be here four years and bang! I’m outtie. But now I plan to take a fifth year to fulfill an (arguably) useful minor.
This birthday, I just want to spend it with my friends and have good, old-fashioned fun. Then I want to go home and celebrate with my family. Simple things. Let’s all appreciate the simple things.
But before that let’s freak out about exams. KK? Cool.
