Cliche' but true

It's my birthday. I was born on this day 29 years ago. I love celebrating my birthday. Although I don't feel bound by the day as much these days, I still like to celebrate the beginning of another year in my life. Fresh starts are my favorite thing.

Still, this blog is about the nothingness that is age. The only reason I almost didn't write this post is because I know that some of you with a bigger number will be tempted to say, "Well, you're only 29. Sure, it's nothing to you." But hear me out on this one.

My being 29 does nothing to increase my maturity, intelligence, wisdom or reliability. Nor does it make me a better friend, wife, mother, companion, confidant. Age does nothing for me. The only true benefit that age has to offer is that it gives us a timeframe for the usefulness of our bodies. Even that is more of a range than an exact science.

Maturity has nothing to do with age. I believe that the greatest factor in one's maturity is teachability. All humans have a rich life experience, whether an individual's life has had great or little drama, maturity is gained in our reaction and responses to it. Two people can experience the exact same event and come away from that experience with an entirely different story. It wasn't the event that created or destroyed maturity and growth, it was the individual's response. I'm not going to get into examples, but I hope you get what I'm saying.

I'm not going to get into a complete discussion of maturity, but I do know that a person with a high level of maturity can also possess a high level of child-like qualities. I think that is part of it. We all tend to get wrapped up in words. Immaturity and child-likeness are not necessarily related. What I mean by being more like a child is to have a higher level of freedom in enjoyment and a greater deal of confidence. If I could live life more like Sophia, I would exponentially increase my joy. Dancing in a fountain or making silly faces are not immature, but they are child-like. So to combine that freedom and confidence with what I have learned in responding to life, and I could have a great life at 29, with much of the wisdom and maturity of many people decades older.

Just so you know, this is coming from absolutely nowhere. Maybe I was hoping to feel more mature at 29 than I really do. I used to view threshhold from the 20's to the 30's as some sort of portal into adulthood. Imagine the anticlimactic realization that I've been an adult for a long, long time.

Wow, that was a long diatribe. Fortunately, it's my birthday, so you have to put up with it. Now that I think of it, it's my blog, so even if it weren't my birthday, you'd just have to suffer and respond accordingly.