24

On the brink of midnight at the edge of the world it is tomorrow everywhere but here. I wonder what will happen when the clock strikes 12. I sit with my back to my headboard. Two of my oldest friends sit at the bottom of my bed. Legs crossed, we wait out the minutes to a new day. I cherish this moment. What a blessing it is to have great friends. It feels a little bit like high school again. Sitting in a circle in my room laughing about life. Things are different now. There is a toddler who won't fall asleep watching Hercules in the living room. We don't go home to our parent's house but to our own homes, families, boyfriends, husbands, kids. But in this moment it is easy to feel 16 again. I wouldn't want to do high school over again. However, to feel naive and forget the world in the last minutes before a birthday is nice. It's actually nice that while things change every day some things never do.

I didn't think I would feel differently but that night I would meet my dreams older and hopefully wiser. I still feel 23. But I do feel different. Even I know that seconds can change people. These 12 uneventful seconds did not make me 16 again but it made me see my life in a new way. It is my birthday wish that every year that I am blessed with I will remember turning 24. Remember that no matter how life changes that I should always take the good with the bad and when the clock strikes 12 on the 12th of June in the land of the midnight sun that I will know how blessed I am. Just to live.

Afterall, without the bad the good isn't nearly as sweet.

I hope that I have conveyed more than nonsense in this post. I hope you find in yourself what I am finding in myself every day. I hope you cherish your friendships, your familes, and your days.

Sara