I closed the 23rd chapter of my life this past Sunday, June 21, and well, I’d be lying if I said I feel any different. Should I still be waiting for 24 to feel cool? Anyway, that’s one step closer to my mid-twenties. Yikes!

Let us flashback, though, to when I spent my 22nd birthday on a flight to Indonesia and three of the most interesting weeks of my life two years ago.

Then flashback to exactly a year later, when I was dancing my face off under the electric sky at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas.

This year, I turned the age-page with a nice dinner with my family and Jurassic World afterward. Although it was quite different from the past few birthdays, I have zero complaints. I spent it with the people who are most important to me and I can’t ask for anything more.

Materialistically, I got half a set of new tires from my parents (you know you’ve hit adulthood when you get excited about only having to buy two tires instead of all four, thank you, lovely parentals!); I got a super comfy and cute set of pajamas from my godparents (but I’m never retiring my purple UTEP women’s studies T-shirt that I stole from Angela on our Indonesia trip); and the MVP was my friend Aldo, who got me an awesome book of all of Edgar Allan Poe’s works (he knows my nerd level well enough, clearly).

Lest we forget, the quality-and-slightly-drunken times I spent with a few of my friends and co-workers on Friday night at my favorite bar, Blackbird. We also indulged in some delicious pizza from Pizza Joint and avocado fries from the food truck outside of the bar. Double yum for drunk food.

And now, I sit here reminiscing about the good times and bad times I lived during 23. It was full of ups and downs, as it always is, and I’m very thankful for it all. I’ve learned so much, I’ve loved, I’ve lost, I’ve traveled; but I’d like to think that I’ve lived perhaps only a small part of what’s about to come, and I can’t wait to see what’s next because I’m ready for it.

Despite that, I still find myself wondering exactly how one is supposed to adult. There are times when I think, “Oh, I should probably get an adult to do this,” then I realize I am an adult … but it’s like I need an more-adult person and then I freak out and realize I’m probably not adult enough. Nobody warns you about how truly difficult it is to be an adult, and my life isn’t even that complicated. So consider yourself warned, little babies!

We also celebrated Father’s Day on my birthday. Shout out to my dad for being the most hard-working person, my biggest inspiration and favorite superhero. I’m so grateful to have been so lucky to have him as my dad; I wouldn’t be half the person I am now if it wasn’t for him.

And now, it’s confession time, my little unicorns! I went to Sephora last night in search of a little self-gifting. If you know me well, you know that the combination of me and Sephora is the equivalent of danger. But I’ll let you in on my little splurging soon, stay tuned! For now, that is all.

❤

-V

Thanks to Yasmin for the cool pictures! 🙂