Final Countdown to the Big Two Three

My birthday is in four days.  I feel like I am counting down for a bomb to be dropped..  this is the first birthday I am not looking forward to.  Turning 21 was even more exciting than turning 18, a whole new door of opportunities was opened and I loved every second of it (minus all the money I began spending).  Turning 22 wasn’t great but I was still in college, so it was just 21 + 1 year.  23.. The awkward age between college and the “real world”.  No one wants to hire us (or anyone for that matter) so many of us are living at home with our parents or applying to grad schools to put off job searching.  I feel like 23 is the age it is expected for us newly graduated people to get our act together.. should I be on some road establishing myself in a career or figuring out the rest of my life instead of running around Thailand for a year? What the heck am I going to do when I’m done with Thailand?  If I come home to the states, I sure hope mom has an open room for me!

I just started doing conversational tutoring on Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school with Sumo (yes, like Sumo wrestling), he’s eight and in the second grade.  For an hour after school, I basically take him on the songtell wherever he wants to go which will normally be to eat a snack, then to meet his mom at Central in a store where she works.  He is such a sweet boy and his English is pretty good and I really actually enjoy his company.  He is a bit shy but when he does talk, he cracks me up.  Yesterday after eating at some Japanese restaurant (I didn’t order anything, Sumo informed me that everything on the menu was spicy.. hey, I wasn’t in the mood for octopus balls anyways), I told Sumo my birthday was coming up and I was looking for a good place to get ice cream or cake.  After determining I’d probably just get a milk shake at Central from Swansen’s ice cream, I asked Sumo a question.

“Sumo, how old do you think Teacher Chelsea is turning?”

“Umm, 35??”

“AHHHH!  NOOOOO! Younger, MUCH younger!”

“25?” (He was very hesitant this time)

“A few years younger…”

“23?”

“Yeeees, 23!  So old”

After the shock and horror of being mistaken for being 35, I realized that 23 really isn’t that bad.. I could be having a worse birthday year.  I’m still at my prime, and now-a-days no one is really considered old (or looks old) until their 70s anyways! But I am looking forward to going to bars back home and being carded again, it’ll make me feel young! (They never card here, I don’t even know what the drinking age is.. probably 12).

NOTE: I don’t mean ANY offense to anyone who is 35 or older!!  All of you probably have a job/family/home and are very beautiful.. I’m just NOT ready to be 23 yet.