A New Decade

As my birthday is coming up, I've been doing a lot of thinking about turning 20. I can't believe that my teenage years are almost behind me, and I am a little upset by that! Mostly I think it's because you don't have as many responsibilities, and you can kind of do crazy things with people not getting upset because you're a teenager. When you turn 20, there is almost this automatic push into adulthood, where the real world confronts you head-on and you're left to figure out jobs, careers, bills, and all the other things that your parents worry about but you never thought you would.
For one of my college classes, we had to read The Great Gatsby. I can't tell you how much I love this book! The way that Fitzgerald provides a social commentary is refreshing, and highlights the good and bad of the roaring 20s is fantastic. I also feel like it is applicable to the young stage of life that young adults are in- where hopefully we have no limits being placed on us, where we can truly be what we want to be and achieve what we set our minds to. With that, one of the main characters said something that really grabbed my attention because of my 20th birthday:

" I was 30--Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade"

And even though I'm not turning 30, it made me think about what this new decade will hold for me. My past decade has been filled with change- if you think about it, from the time that you're 10-20 there is a lot of things that happen, like learning to drive a car, going on a first date, graduating grade school, starting college, etc. and life just gets crazy! I'm hoping that with this birthday, this decade won't be menacing, but rather another period of life that I can look back on with fondness and excitement for what I learned and did.
So, even though I still feel a little depressed with leaving the teen world, I have to admit that I am excited to see what this new decade will bring.