Twenty-one Years Young

A year ago, a couple days before my 20th birthday, I was standing outside Blenz having a quarter-life crisis. For some reason, I felt like time was running out and I had accomplished nothing at all. I wanted to do something drastic to change my life; I was ready for an adventure. There were so many things I had wanted to do and realizing I didn't know where to start and that I could potentially die the very next day, I panicked. While I was relaying all my thoughts to friend who was on his smoke break, a thought occurred to me: I need a cigarette. That night, he had three cigarettes but wouldn't even let me touch one. I did eventually smoke my first cigarette, but that's a story for another time.

On the day of my birthday, I had a 2 hour break between my classes so I decided to bus to Granville Street and find myself a present. Initially, I had wanted to purchase a skateboard but for some reason found myself inside Adrenaline. I walked in, told them it was my birthday and that I wanted a nose piercing. As I stared at myself in the mirror after having my nose pierced, I could not help but generate the biggest smile ever. I absolutely loved it and promised myself that I would never again question my gut feelings. I walked out feeling like a brand new person.

Fast forward to the present day, I just turned 21 yesterday and I cannot think of a  time where I was ever this happy.Within this year I have backpacked China, fallen in love, made connections with the top professors within my faculty, officially became a varsity track athlete and in a couple of months, I'll be flying off to Australia to study, work and travel for 6 months. I now have more hits on google than ever (seriously, google me). Slightly more famous, much healthier, and loads more accomplished. So much has changed in just 12 months and all I had to do was say "yes" to everything that I had always wanted.

But some things for me will never change - there will always be terrible pictures of me on the internet.