Birthday ... Thoughts ... Travel

I turn 27 at midnight on December 9th (in 3 hours), though I wasn't actually born until 4:45 pm. My mother's due date was November 27th, so she was more than ready to have her first child.

Since I went away to school, every year on my birthday, my mom calls me, usually sings "Happy Birthday". A couple years ago, she also started asking me if I feel old for being xx years old (whatever age I was turning). I respond by asking her if she feels old to have a daughter who is xx years old. She would laugh ... Until last year, when she told me yes, she did.

My mom can't call me tomorrow because I'm going to be driving to Waterloo (4 hours away) for an afternoon business meeting. I don't come back until Thursday. Of course, she can call me, but not first thing in the morning - I'll be up before her!

I have been reflecting on my last birthday as an unmarried woman. I would hesitate to say a "single woman", because I don't view myself as single. I am engaged to be married to the man I have been dating for just over 6 years. What does this mean to me? Not much, frankly. I view marriage not as a new beginning, nor as the end of "singledom", but as a continuation of a relationship. This is, literally, our next step together.

Once upon a time, when I was probably 16, I remember thinking to myself that I would get married at 27. I don't know why. I thought 30 was old (ha!), and 25 was too young (I had read a study divorce rates are much higher in people who marry under 25). So 27 seemed good. Don't ask me why. I don't want to create a self-fulfilling prophecy; I don't think that I had a "vision" or "foresight" into my future. I think it just worked out this way. After undergrad, I wasn't ready to marry. I marvel at those who do marry right out of undergrad (and I wonder how many of them are truly ready or if they just feel it's the next thing to do?). I went away for grad school, though at that point I figured I would marry Wade, I was 3 hours away. I also wanted to be financially stable before getting married. Wade & I didn't want to get engaged until I had a job somewhere nearby. After grad school, I got a job 2 hours away, so that didn't make sense to get married then. As that one-year contract was winding down, I got a job in the area. It was time to make this next step. I'm ready to get married, not because I need or want to be married (like so many girls, frankly), but because I want to marry Wade.

So how do I feel turning 27? Well, when I turned 23, 24, 25, even 26, I had these "wow, I'm an adult" moments. Now, I don't have that. I guess I understand that I'm "grown up". I do wonder where the years have gone, that I'm now 27 (but I was recently told that the fact that I wonder where time went means I'm old!). I do look forward to the future. And I think "27" will be a good year :)

(Oh yeah, and the ice cream cake Wade got for me on Saturday was yummy. I had too much and had a tummy ache after. Maybe I'm not so grown up after all!)