My Two Cents: 20

It was kind of hard to decide where to file this post.

It could go under 'a story' because it's a chapter in the story of my life.  But that sounds a little too philosophical and scary.  The Mouse Files is probably the opposite of philosophical and scary (it better be, because if it's not, I won't be reading it in twenty years like originally planned).

Maybe it's a confession?  Okay, I confess that it is a confession.

But it's also what I think, my two cents, on the issue of turning twenty.

So here we go.  The big two-oh.  Double decades.  The transition from teens to... what?

I'm going to get the confession out the way first.

This was The Mouse two days ago:
(It's not use whispering this, because I've already been blaring it out to all of my friends)

* whiny voice*
me: "Twenty is such a blah age!  I don't want to turn twenty!"
*sympathetic murmurs from friends*
me again: "Nineteen is the best ever!  I don't know why, but I want to stay nineteen for another year...and then skip to 21!"
*agreeing murmurs from friends, then a discussion of all the cool things we've done since being nineteen*

I have no problem being 20-something, just 20.

There, that is my confession.

Two days later, I am now irreconcilably no longer a teenager.  Perhaps not surprisingly (depending on whether you are pre or post 20 yourself), I actually don't feel blah.

Granted, no one has asked me how old I am yet.
Also, I noticed that a lot of birthday messages this year stressed just how old I am now.  AND how much older I'm about to become (thanks everyone, love you too).

But I have three things going for me:

a) I literally could pass for a fifteen year old.
Baby faces run in the family - you only need to look at my dad, my uncles, my granddad.  The flower of youth blooms within is (or something like that).
It is actually really annoying.  I don't have anything against being fifteen (other than it was my drama queen phase), but I'm always having to show my ID and assure people it's fine that I'm not with my parents.

me: "Yes, I can fill out that form myself, no, I'm not driving illegally."

"And NO I'm not wagging school today!  Believe it or not, I've actually finished with all that!"

Yes, I'm nineteen twenty.  *cough*

b) My post-twenty friends are definitely NOT blah.
They are the coolest people ever!  They work and study, take out foundlings like me for coffee, give really good advice, get married (gulp), go on road trips and actually work for money (as opposed to working for experience which usually doesn't involve money).

c) I'm not the only one turning twenty this year.

This time next year.
me: "Twenty-one is such a scary age!  I don't want to turn twenty-one!"
*sympathetic murmurs from friends*
me again: "Twenty is actually much better than I thought it would be!  I think it would be easier to be twenty for another year and skip twenty-one!"
*agreeing murmurs from friends, then a discussion of all the cool things we've done since being TWENTY*

My two cents: those that think twenty is a blah age... I'll let you know if that's true next year.  ;)

Now, I'm going to go buy twenty candles for my cake.  Let's do this thoroughly.