Today is the day that I turn 25, a number that sounds much higher and more audacious than my humble 24.
I’ve always loved birthdays, although I have to admit, my enthusiasm for them has begun to trickle off in the past few years.
It’s not that I don’t like birthdays… because I am game for any excuse for a celebration. But it’s hard to be excited for something that everyone else dreads.
We’re nearing that point where growing older is no longer something to celebrate, but something to dread. As if the entrance of one more day leads to the exit of beauty, youth, and the possibility of a full, vibrant life.
Now here’s the thing…
This makes me mad.
It makes me mad in the same way that it used to when college graduates would tell me to enjoy what I had and to stay in school forever. What did they want me to do? Never graduate? That would be a really fun way to celebrate a 50th birthday – I’d simultaneously be celebrating my 27th year of college. Give me a few more decades and I could pull out my dentures as a party trick.
It makes me mad because in telling me that, they were telling me to run away from the inevitable. Dreading age is like fighting against gravity – it’s just not a battle we’re going to win.
And so that leaves us with a few choices.
The first is to hate growing older. We can spend time looking at the wrinkles of our skin and crying over them for the next 60 years. We can dread each birthday, as if that’s going to stave off the passing of the time. We can refuse to celebrate — hoping that if we don’t acknowledge our day, it will be like it never happened.
The second option is to give up. I can’t help but get older, so what are my other options? If life is just going to get worse, what’s the point?
Are you hoping for another option? Yea… me too.
The third option is to celebrate — to be grateful for every single year and the beautiful blessings that it contained. We could pop open the champagne and kiss our loved ones and dance until the sun comes up, and we could do that for the rest of our lives. We could celebrate, with full gratitude, the fact that we got to live on this beautiful earth for one more year – something that is never a guarantee.
And we could allow people to celebrate with us. We could allow the people that love us to surround us, kissing us and showering us with their love, reminding us – again and again – that we matter.
Proverbs 16:31 says, “Grey hair is a crown of splendor. It is attained by a life of righteousness.”
And I love that idea.
Getting older is a privilege denied to many. Reaching the point of having grey hair and wrinkles is a gift – it means we had a full life, a long time to do beautiful and wonderful things with beautiful and wonderful people.
And so instead of focusing on reversing time, I want to focus on spending it well.
I’ve lived 25 amazing years and I want to spend the rest of them well – whether I get two, twenty, or two hundred. I want to earn my grey hair and wrinkles—living life hard and wringing out all of the beauty and the laughter it has to offer.
I’m refusing, right now, today, to allow age to be my enemy. Instead, I’m deciding that it’s a gift.
Each stage of life has something beautiful in it, if we only cultivate the eyes to see it. I can do things at 25 that I was only dreaming of when I was 20. At 20, I was able to live a life that would have made my 16-year-old self green with envy.
I am choosing to believe that every year gets better – that each stage of life is better than the last and that it’s only uphill from here – with each day unfolding more beautifully than the last.
So here I am, 25 and ready for an even better year than the last.
85… I’m coming for you, and if I’m lucky, I’m going to be wrinkly and fabulous when I arrive.
(Photo with the pink balloons taken by the lovely Lacee Peloquin)
I know someone who tweeted “Thank You, Lord, for another year of life” the evening before her 21st birthday. The following afternoon she went to live with Jesus. Her final tweet was praising Him and thanking Him for the time He’d given her. I love that!
That’s so sad and beautiful all at the same time. I hope those are my last thoughts too.
Happy Happy Birthday Stephanie!!! Hope this is your most fabulous year yet!!! 😉
I’ve met a number of people who either hide their age or lie about it.. but why do that? With age comes experience and wisdom right? (well, most of us gain wisdom, some not so much haha)
Blessings to you!!!
Thank you so much Kadi! I totally agree – I hope that we can be proud of our ages, not hide them.
Hi Stephanie!
I’m 25, and I went through a lot of these same things around my birthday in February. My mom always likes to say that I was “born 30” which is a little true. I’ve always wanted to grow up, but as I get older, it is scary a bit. It all seems so real.
For my birthday, my best friend, who is a little older, got me a gift certificate to buy a bottle of wine, spending much more than I would have on my own. I was struggling with the idea of not being where I wanted to be, or where I thought I would be. But I bought the wine, and I celebrated 25. God knows just what He is doing with me, and with you.
Thanks for sharing!
“I bought the wine and celebrated 25.” That’s exactly what we should do! 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
Happy Birthday, Stephanie!
As a 31 year old who is already seeing his first few grey hairs (I’ll be honest in the beginning finding these little boogers was more than a bit freaksome for me, but you learn to grow into them) this post means a lot and can relate to everyone. Getting older is definitely not the seeming curse the world makes it to be…and the reality is that no matter how old we get we always have a calling and purpose.
I want to have the attitude King David did when he said in the psalms, “You got me when I was an unformed youth, God, and taught me everything I know. Now I’m telling the world your wonders; I’ll keep at it until I’m old and gray.” (Psalms 71) I pray I always strive to tell the world about the wonders of God no matter what my age is, because ultimately this is our beautiful and lovely purpose. No, I don’t want to wallow in the depths of negativity that the world chooses to drown in concerning aging. I want to view aging as a blessed gift…and I want to happily live out Gus McCrae’s sentiments in “Lonesome Dove” when he says, “The older the violin the sweeter the music”. Yeah, that sounds pretty sweet to me.
“The older the violin, the sweeter the music,” That’s lovely. Thank you Jeremy!
I LOVED turning 50! They gave me a big surprise party, complete with goofy glasses and a tiara! Getting older is inevitable, so you might as well embrace it and make the most of every day. Good for you, birthday girl, for figuring that out so soon 😉
Big ol’ birthday hugs to you, sweet thing 😉
That’s the best!! “Getting older is inevitable, so you might as well embrace it and make the most of every day.” Thank you so much for paving the way with positivity! 🙂 Love you!!!
Happy happy birthday internally beautiful friend!
Thank you, my love!
Happy birthday, Stephanie!
I turned 30 back in October and despite feeling like 30 was so incredibly old when I was a teenager, I was excited to turn 30. You couldn’t pay me to be a kid or teenager or even twentysomething again. The experiences I’ve had, the way God has shaped me and molded me over the past 30 years, I wouldn’t trade for anything. I am who I always wanted to be at 15, back when I was so insecure and painfully unsure of myself.
I look at my mom, who just turned 54 back in December, and though she is very much feeling the aches and pains of growing old, I think she is more beautiful now than she was in her 20s (even though she was gorgeous then). When people tell me I look like her, it’s one of the best compliments I could ever receive. The beauty my mom has at 54 is more than skin deep. She is a survivor. Her faith in God’s mercy and grace is splashed all over her and radiates from her. That’s the kind of woman I want to be as the years go by.
I don’t want to stop where I am and never change, never get older, never grow more into who God created me to be. I feel so blessed to be 30 (and I am finally starting to come down from the hormonal rollercoaster of my 20s, praise Jesus, and I can think clearly). I am finally comfortable in my own skin, secure in who God made me to be, and always looking forward to the life God has blessed me with and the woman He will continue shaping me to be until it’s time to go home and forever be with Him.
That’s the best sentiment – being younger was wonderful, but I wouldn’t trade it for what I get to do now for the world! I’m so glad that you feel the same way!!
Happy Birthday Stephanie! And yes! Live well all the days God allows and enjoy! Thinking of you today.
Thank you Jerry! And thank you so much for your sweet card!
Oh Steph — I love this, I love you! I am always so thankful for each year. Many do not make it to see past their 25th birthday — celebrate now! Shoot, we should each celebrate each day we get to live this life. We never know what the next minute holds. I’m a little late to the party — but happy happy birthday.
I completely agree. Thank you love!!
Haha, I really appreciate this and agree with it.
I think it’s important to listen to WHO is saying that aging isn’t good or fun or it’s scary or that life doesn’t get better after 25. Because I think most people who aren’t living in a pool of regret are happy to be right exactly where they are.
Even this past year… it’s been so tough for me and I’ve missed college in some ways, but I don’t wish to be 21 again. I don’t think that would fix my issues and to be honest, that’s a chapter of my life that has closed. I have fond memories and that’s awesome, but I also am moving on — and I am glad to be doing so.
Hoping that things never change at all is to stop living. I think we should celebrate. Celebrate that we’re growing. That each year builds on the next. That getting older isn’t scary if you’re truly present to your life, alive, and facing it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY 25!! 🙂
This is lovely. Thank you so much, friend! 🙂
You really need to stop being so dang cute, okay? Thanks 🙂 You are precious and so was this post! Loved everything about it! I can’t wait to read your blog when you are 85!
Oh, you’re so sweet. Thank you so much!!! What will writing look like at 85?! Who knows! 🙂