The forgotten teenage years  March 22nd

When people of think of teenagers, I feel like they think of people who are about 15 years old, give or take a year. They think of someone in high school, basically. They don’t really think about those who are 18 and 19 years old. In fact, those of that age typically get lumped together with the younger 20-somethings, such as in surveys, where they are part of the age group “18-24.” They are teenagers, but they’re not thought to be teens – they’re adults. Young adults.

I was thinking about this because I turned 19 yesterday. It’s not really a special year or some milestone in life. I’m not 18, when I legally became an adult. I’m not 20, when I’ll break into a new decade of my life. I’m not 21, when I will legally be allowed to drink (not that it will be anything earthshaking for me, since I don’t drink and I don’t really have an interest in drinking). I’m 19 years old. The last of the teenage years, but then again, I get lumped in with the 20-somethings so maybe I’m not really a teenager after all. I’m just 19. That’s all.

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday with a few of my good friends. I’m not one to make a big deal out of my birthday, but it gives me an excuse not to do work and to eat a lot. They took me out to lunch at a restaurant that’s within walking distance of the campus (although Katy drove us down anyway), and then Nicole and I went to the mall together. It was a successful shopping excursion, in my opinion, and I refrained from spending too much money. I took out $40 to spend and I spent $41.50, which is less than one week’s pay. I bought a shirt from H&M, flip-flops, and a sports bra from Old Navy. I really like Old Navy’s new-ish fitness clothing. It makes me want to go out and run or something. Seriously, if I had a cute pair of running shoes and some of those clothes, I would totally be motivated to exercise. I may not be fit, but if I look cute trying, that’s cool with me.

Later that night, my friends Becca, Katy, and Nicole came into my room with a birthday cake and sang the happy birthday song. My experience with Wegmans birthday cake tells me that it’s really good. Actually, I’ve also had Shop Rite birthday cake that has been delicious, too. Maybe supermarkets actually make pretty good birthday cakes. Then we played board game Jeopardy!, and I won with $16,800. It’s was a nice, relaxing day, and now I have lots of work to do for this week that I have not done yet!