The Ticking Clock

The crappy alarm woke me up! I was irritated it did so I put it off and crept back to bed.

I tried to think myself to sleep then I remembered today was different- it was my birthday!

I was about to jump out of bed then I remembered I had added an extra year into my life L

I’m 24, a year older and closer to the grave. Sounds depressing (lol), but true. Sad, I thought, I’m just getting old, not a nice thought to start the day.

I sat on my bed thinking of how far I had gone in life. I missed my teenage years;

I remembered my 16^th birthday where my friends and I went out to lunch, it was a Saturday! We hung out all day laughing and singing in a mini bus!  After lunch we went shopping then for a party, my best friend also stayed and we had a wonderful sleep over!

I remembered my 21^st birthday where I had a lovely surprise birthday party! I had planned to take my friends out at the weekend but my sisters had something else in mind. On the day, they took me shopping then suggested I go with them to lunch and when I got there I saw a group of people who screamed “Happy Birthday”! Most of them wore purple (my favourite colour). We also went bowling and had drinks afterwards.

I began to miss my youth. It was so easy then; to get into trouble and get away with it, the thrill of rebellion and doing stupid things. Knowing that you did not need to bother about anything in particular and all you had to do was say the word and you get almost everything you wanted.

Then, we all wanted to be treated like adults! We wanted to wear heels and make up, have boyfriends and cars- you were cool if you had one and you were also cool if you acted 21 even if you were 16. We had no real issues but wanted some, provoked petty disputes and worried about things that were very unnecessary.

Now I wished I had those kinds of issues instead of having to think of rent, petrol, electricity and phone bills or having to listen to long ear aching words and questions on relationships and marriage like there’s a cut off age for that!

Sigh, I felt like sleeping all day just to dream away my thoughts or better still go back in time to when I was younger and prettier, very soon I’d become 60 and have wrinkles and a walking stick!

At that moment I received a call from a friend of mine, “happy birthday sweetheart, have fun o!”  Talking to her made me light up! Then I heard a knock on the door “special delivery!” I received a bouquet of flowers, another delivery came and I got a spa set and chocolates! My heart lit up and I felt sparkly and bubbly!

I then realized my morbid thoughts made me ungrateful, there I was moping about my age while people were trying to make me happy, one would think I was 90 in an old people’s home!

Yes, I was growing older but also closer to new opportunities, meeting new people and creating a wonderful family of my own! There was so much to look forward to. I did miss my teenage years but I had many more years to come!

I realised that life is what you make of it. If I could stop time in order to stay younger, I won’t be giving the younger ones a chance to grow and enjoy being young and I would also be wasting precious minutes I would never get back. I also realized that every stage in life has its joys, at 16 we wanted to act 21 because we admired the “joys” of being 21 so I’m pretty sure I would like the joys of being 24!

I decided to forget about all the horrible thoughts lined up in my head and focus on the wonderful day called my birthday! So I took a bath, wore a pretty dress and got ready for whatever the day had in store for me, and guess what? I had another surprise birthday party!

We worry so much about our age. We feel we are so old and become ugly or inadequate once we leave our teens or 20s. Life is much more than that.  

Age is nothing but a number (in this aspect anyway) and we can make the best of each stage of our lives by living it to the fullest! we could be happy! and true happiness comes from doing the right thing and achieving the goals we set. When each stage is well lived and  our time on Earth almost spent, we could sit back in our rocking chair, smoking a pipe or carrying a grandchild, look ahead and confidently agree that  we've lived a good life!