AN ODE TO GETTING OLD BUT NEVER GROWING UP

This week it was my birthday.

(Here's one I made earlier...)

I am now at an age where I will forget the specifics and refer to myself rather as a twenty-something.

They say that age is but a number. Yet ageing is a real bummer. As I fall ever further into my twenties, I feel each passing year becomes a countdown of sorts. Like a timer set for a specific purpose, that remains elusive to me. It's an anxiety that despite the celebrations and copious amounts of chocolate cake, plagues me.

Milestones encourage reflection, a pin in the map of your life. Think of all the New Year's resolutions to do better, be better, read more, drink less, save, spend on experiences, be active, be grateful... Promises founded on good intentions but often come to act as a means of measuring short comings.

Setting goals is a healthy part of personal development, as is self reflection, but perspective is important when evaluating your accomplishments. I think a lot of feeling like an under achiever is due in part to our social media inundated lives, the Instagram effect if you will. It's hard not to live comparatively to the filtered lives of everyone else - who are obviously having more fun, more success and more luck at taking selfies than you.

Herein lies the need for perspective. I don't really know what other people do in their day-to-day lives. But I'm pretty sure that they all have days when their hair is reminiscent of Edward Scissor Hands, that there skin resembles a craggy rock surface and that their day is as exciting as watching grass grow. What I'm also sure of is that these are the moments that won't make it on to their curated profiles. And I don't blame them. Putting your best life out there is the norm. These are moments worth capturing, reliving and reflecting on. It's like a montage of your best bits. But the worst bits, though not Insta-worthy, are worth remembering if only to acknowledge the less than ideal moments that you've overcome. 

Ageing is inevitable. Living everyday to the fullest is unrealistic. Some days will suck, others will suck less. At times you'll feel like you're winning, in the next minute not so much. But the peak might be higher than the pit is low. And that is life. Our quest is to find fulfilment, whatever that may be. Year by year we might get closer or realise that our 'end goal' is just the beginning, it may change as we develop or remain a stalwart that we work towards.

Consider every wrinkle a new patch in the quilt of life. Every set back a rerouting to an unknown adventure. Every bad day a precursor to a better one. Let the ticking clock be the beat that you dance to. And that elusive end goal the thing that empowers you. Have a day in bed. Let your hair be unwashed. Forgo makeup. Life is best lived in those in-between moments that are often overlooked.

Here's to many more years, many more hair styles (bad and good), many more laughs and just as many tears. I hope that 26 is just as exciting and equally mundane as 25 was.

(Photos: @brokentart & unknown)