Tonight is a stressful night for me. Its the night before my birthday. I know a lot of you are gonna roll your eyes but I’m serious. Getting older is something that has always freaked me out. I am turning 23 years old. Seven years away from being thirty and you may laugh at this but I remember turning 16 and now Im about to be 23. Time goes by way too fast. I think when I was younger I assumed that by now I would have a lot more figured out than what I actually do.
I was talking with one of my friends who just got engaged. She is exhausted. She works two jobs, pays rent for an apartment with her fiancé, just bought a cat and she doesn’t have a lot of time for herself anymore. I guess this is considered “adulting.” I remember us in high school, or sophomore year in college. We were careless. Just living life, not worried about the real world, having fun, no responsibilities and just like that here we are. The two girls who once had extraordinary ideas sitting on a couch exhausted and stressed out about their ordinary lives. Both trying to figure out how to be adults but also trying to live like 22 years olds should.
I always told myself that I wanted more than an office job. I wanted more than to deal with my job, I wanted to love it. I wanted more than to just constantly work, get married and have kids without actually enjoying life. In Italy we have this saying “Il Dolce Far Niente,” the sweetness of doing nothing. I love that saying because sometimes doing nothing is just what someone needs. Enjoying the little things in life. Since coming to the United States I see how work driven people are. In fact many of them don’t take the time to enjoy the little things. They work, they save and that’s it. My friend actually said “I don’t know how not to work,” I guess I just always wanted more. I wanted adventure, to feel something exciting, I wanted to see things and learn things. I wanted and still want to change the world, and save lives. Obviously I can do those things now that I graduated but its scary. That first step is always scary. You get overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start. I come from a family that has sacrificed a lot for the younger generations (my cousins and I). I was the first to graduate college and I will be one of the first to take that first step into the world on my own.
Now that the holidays are over I will write more. I have so many things to say honestly but today I am going to go enjoy my birthday !!! Well in a few hours because its midnight right now.
The Daily Em 