Today I am a day older than I was yesterday...

We've had crazy weather this week - almost every form of winter you can imagine. Rain, freezing rain, slushy rain, sleet, snow. And today is my least favorite winter weather: cold and windy. We've been hovering around freezing for most of the week, but today we're not supposed to get much above, like, seven degrees, and with wind chill it's feeling well below zero. Happy birthday to me from Mother Nature!

There's nothing like a birthday to make you contemplative, especially a landmark birthday. I didn't think 28 was a landmark birthday until about a week ago when it occurred to me that today will mark 10 years of "official" adulthood. That's an interesting thought, actually. In some ways I really don't feel like an adult because as a child most of the people you know and consider adults are people with jobs and spouses and probably kids, and I have none of the above. But in other ways I do feel sort of grown up. I'm self-sufficient and do grownup things like doing my taxes and paying bills and calling my insurance company and painting my bedroom. I also feel much older (and I don't mean that in a bad way) and more settled than I did when I was 18, or even 24. And I know myself a lot better now, too.

27 treated me well. I changed my advisor and chose a research topic and decided not to drop out of grad school (yet). I convinced my sister to come out to Michigan and spent a wonderful summer with her around. I went to Hawaii for the first time. I moved to a new apartment (and I love the apartment, as does pretty much everyone who comes to visit) and got a great roommate. I started wearing dangly earrings and got over my fear of mascara. I ran a 21-mile run in the summer without ever consciously planning to get that far in my training. I made quite a few new friends. I discovered that I am not afraid of the winter anymore (though I'm still anxious for it to end). I learned that I sort of enjoy being a social organizer sometimes. I painted my bedroom and bathroom. I started teaching part time at the community college.

And so I guess now I'm looking forward to another good year. I hope to run my second marathon, and pass my qualifying exams, and take a road trip or two. I look forward to meeting more new people, but would also like to work on strengthening the friendships I already have - I want to be a better friend. I hope to make progress on personal goals I have already set for myself (my birthday is close enough to the new year that it allows me to renew those resolutions right about the time they're starting to fade for the first time). I want to be better at fulfilling my calling. My sister believes with all her heart that this is the year I will finally get married and give her nieces and nephews, and I'm afraid I'll probably disappoint her for the tenth year running, but for her sake I will make it a goal to maintain a positive attitude about dating this year :). This year I hope to read lots of good books, to keep my room neat and my bathroom clean, to do my laundry before it has to be done, to try new recipes, to eat more vegetables, to be politically informed.

I want to be able to say that 28 treated me well too.

The nice thing is that, although I have had my share of bumps on the way (you are getting the optimistic side of my birthday reflections), I also think that I have been able to say, so far, that every year has treated me well. It's just all about how you look at things, really, and while I do my share of worrying in the present, it turns out that I'm pretty good at casting things in positive terms in general. So if 18 treated me well, and 24, and 27, and all the years in between, then I feel pretty confident that at this time next year I'll be able to look back and say that sure, 28 had some bumps, but it was a good year.

Okay, I'm done being contemplative now and am going to go enjoy the rest of my Sunday.