I turned 24 last week. Somehow I do not feel older at all. I expected to feel 24 and I don’t.

There are significant birthdays, that bring with them significant milestones in your life. And then there are the years in between. When you’re 13, you are a teenager, when you’re 16, you can drive, when you’re 18 you can vote, when you’re 21 you can drink.

With my birthday at the end of May, some of the in-between years still held certain milestones. The end of each year of my life was the end of a school year – a major transition period. When I turned 14 in May of 2004, I had finished middle school, got my braces off and got contacts – talk about transformation! When I turned 22, I graduated college. The very day of my 22nd birthday, I packed up my house in Delaware and moved back in with my parents.

These big events are what make you feel older. They are what give you the feeling that it’s the end of one thing and the beginning of something new. They make you step up, take responsibility, or do something different.

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