HI to 日本: お誕生日おめでとうございます！ to me

o.m.g I'm 23. I just turned 23 years of age. Geez.

Now, before you start to roll your eyes and quietly mutter under your breath that 23 is "sooo young" and yada, yada, yada, just know that I already know this, I know it ALL. And I shouldn't be complaining about my age at such a young age, but whatever, this is my blog and I'll complain about the sky being blue if I feel like it.

First off, it's not that I'm complaining about getting old but more that I actually FEEL older. If you can actually believe it. I feel older than 23. Is that normal? Or am I just a freak? I don't feel 23, I feel older, a lot older. But this could be attributed to the realization that I've grown A LOT in the past year. I think I was just starting to come to terms with all of my responsibilities (job, bills, uh, life). I felt like I was settling into my life here in Japan, being on my own, living by myself, all for the first time, ever. And now, it's just hit me that there's a long road ahead. A long (expletive) road ahead, filled with ups, downs, curves, side streets, round-abouts, you get the point. And seeing the '23rd' smacked between the 'Happy' and the 'Birthday!' was just a reminder that even though I feel like I've grown, matured, and started to settle into my own skin, there's still a lot to learn.

But yeah, anyway, I'm happy to be alive and healthy so happy birthday to me (and everyone else born on 4-24)!

All that I ever ask for on my birthday (my bf will disagree) is to be surrounded by good people and delicious food. I did just that for this birthday. Take a look!

(Note: I like to celebrate my birthday over the course of three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm greedy like that)