BEGINNINGS : Adulthood

BEGINNINGS : Journal Entry #5 - Adulthood

Sent: 7/12/2001 12:33 AM

This girl on the bus this morning told me that I had beautiful eyes. "Oh my God, your eyes are so blue. I've never seen that color of eyes before." Of course, I was flattered. I think I even opened my eyes wider and stared up towards the sun a little just so my pupil would get smaller and my iris would flower like a blue daisy. Yes, it never hurts to hear a compliment now and again, especially at the beginning of the day. Then she asked if I was going to Columbia to school. Not yet, but hopefully will start my masters in the next few years. She laughed and looked at me, "How old are you?" I told her I was 27 - a year old habit that I haven't quite licked in the past 6 weeks of being 28. "Oh my, I thought you were 22 or 23 years old." I wanted to reach out my arms and give her a big hug. With a few more wrinkles in my hands, a few more pounds over my belt line, and a few more hairs in the drain in the shower (I'm counting on them being Leon's, although I think I might be mistaken) I have begun to look a little older. Her flattery was a great vitamin to start the day.

But as I climbed into the bus today, and settled down in the back directly across from a teenage girl talking on her cell phone, I realized that getting older has been the best thing for me since peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Finally life was tasting pretty good while filling me up. Getting older means getting closer to really feeling like an adult. God, sometimes I have to really ask myself, do I feel like an adult? As the wrinkles crease across my hands, as the pounds creep onto my waist, and as the few more hairs decide to take flight from my scalp, I feel so excited that I am very close to answering "yes" to that question. I am an adult.