Happy 25th Birthday to Me!
Today's the day I turn a quarter century old. I didn't expect anything special despite this because my birthday falls on the most festive month of the year. I'm used to friends and family turning down my birthday party invites because they were going on vacation for as long as I can remember. In Malaysia, November and December were the equivalent of "summer vacation" after all. When I came to the States, I thought it might change since school break is between June and August, but I later on realized that the week of December 12 is finals' week, followed by winter break. At that point I gave up trying to make birthday celebrations happen. Ahahaha. December babies always get put on the back burner. No big deal.
This year, however, turned out a little different. Ruth and Bryan decided to make a surprise trip to Sacramento to celebrate my birthday. A spontaneous 6-hour road-trip through the night! I usually dislike last minute surprises, but I was touched beyond words I couldn't say no. Spontaneous people usually drive me crazy, but somehow these two really know how to make it work. Hahaha. Or maybe I'm just biased? I haven't seen them in MONTHS. In fact, I usually only get to see them once a year on average. I've never been this appreciative towards spontaneity.
They were only here for exactly 24 hours, but it was one of the best 24-hours I've had in a long time. We got to check out parts of Old Town Sac, eat Kbbq as per our tradition, and had fruit tart later that night when John and I came back from our family obligations. They took the opportunity to deck out my house with balloons and birthday decorations while I was gone, then turned off all the lights and brought a fruit cake with lit candles to greet me at the door while singing happy birthday. How sweet was that? I can finally see why kids love celebrating their birthdays. This was what I was missing out on haha.
The next day, my good friend Lydia, whom I haven't seen in 6 months, met up with me for lunch in SF. We later on had another spontaneous double date dinner with Mike and Zara at an Argentinian restaurant called Lolinda. The food was AH-MAZING. I never thought I'd be able to see so many friends for my birthday. I was over the moon.
Tonight, my parents will be coming from San Diego! So I guess I'll have celebration #3. Perhaps this is karma trying to make up to me for all those lost birthdays? Hahahaha.
That aside, I admit I did have a mini quarter-life crisis the week before. Thoughts of "I'm a full blown adult now! Have I done enough? Should I still be in school at this point? Am I even on track to where I want to be at 50?" popped into my mind once or twice, followed by a mini panic-attack. But after seeing so many different faces all going through different walks of life since meeting them for the first time has reminded me how far we've all come. Life might seem the same on a day-to-day basis, but when I compared where I was 7 years ago when Ruth, Bryan, and I were still teens, we have all changed drastically since then. Bryan completed his masters and is a teacher back at the high school we went to together (how crazy is that?!). Ruth not only completed her B.A. (something she never thought she'd do) but is already making a name for herself out there in LA for makeup artistry and photography. As for me, I'm married, working on my masters, and just bought our first home! How time flies, and how nice that we're all making progress towards our aspirations and life goals.
Now I can't wait to turn 40 LOL. I think life would be much more interesting then. But one year at a time yeah? Thank you God for another year of life, blessings, friendship, and love. The years keep getting better even through the struggles. Thank you for giving me life, for parents who nurtured me to become the strong person I am today, and for the spouse you've blessed me with by my side today. All glory and honor goes to you. Amen.
....and Happy 25th Birthday to me!
This year, however, turned out a little different. Ruth and Bryan decided to make a surprise trip to Sacramento to celebrate my birthday. A spontaneous 6-hour road-trip through the night! I usually dislike last minute surprises, but I was touched beyond words I couldn't say no. Spontaneous people usually drive me crazy, but somehow these two really know how to make it work. Hahaha. Or maybe I'm just biased? I haven't seen them in MONTHS. In fact, I usually only get to see them once a year on average. I've never been this appreciative towards spontaneity.
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| They package said "Happy Birthday Sign" but it came out as "Congratulations" lol. |
They were only here for exactly 24 hours, but it was one of the best 24-hours I've had in a long time. We got to check out parts of Old Town Sac, eat Kbbq as per our tradition, and had fruit tart later that night when John and I came back from our family obligations. They took the opportunity to deck out my house with balloons and birthday decorations while I was gone, then turned off all the lights and brought a fruit cake with lit candles to greet me at the door while singing happy birthday. How sweet was that? I can finally see why kids love celebrating their birthdays. This was what I was missing out on haha.
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| Just doing #3musketeer things in Old Town Sacramento |
The next day, my good friend Lydia, whom I haven't seen in 6 months, met up with me for lunch in SF. We later on had another spontaneous double date dinner with Mike and Zara at an Argentinian restaurant called Lolinda. The food was AH-MAZING. I never thought I'd be able to see so many friends for my birthday. I was over the moon.
Tonight, my parents will be coming from San Diego! So I guess I'll have celebration #3. Perhaps this is karma trying to make up to me for all those lost birthdays? Hahahaha.
That aside, I admit I did have a mini quarter-life crisis the week before. Thoughts of "I'm a full blown adult now! Have I done enough? Should I still be in school at this point? Am I even on track to where I want to be at 50?" popped into my mind once or twice, followed by a mini panic-attack. But after seeing so many different faces all going through different walks of life since meeting them for the first time has reminded me how far we've all come. Life might seem the same on a day-to-day basis, but when I compared where I was 7 years ago when Ruth, Bryan, and I were still teens, we have all changed drastically since then. Bryan completed his masters and is a teacher back at the high school we went to together (how crazy is that?!). Ruth not only completed her B.A. (something she never thought she'd do) but is already making a name for herself out there in LA for makeup artistry and photography. As for me, I'm married, working on my masters, and just bought our first home! How time flies, and how nice that we're all making progress towards our aspirations and life goals.
Now I can't wait to turn 40 LOL. I think life would be much more interesting then. But one year at a time yeah? Thank you God for another year of life, blessings, friendship, and love. The years keep getting better even through the struggles. Thank you for giving me life, for parents who nurtured me to become the strong person I am today, and for the spouse you've blessed me with by my side today. All glory and honor goes to you. Amen.
....and Happy 25th Birthday to me!
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