New Age

Fortune Telling, 2009, Maury Gortemiller

Tomorrow, I will be 24. As I review the past year and my current surroundings, I can't help but be amazed-as I am every year-at how much change and growth has occurred. I have now worked my first full year since graduating college, moved to a new city (and in that new city, moved from one place to another place approximately three times), rekindled dormant relationships, ended some live relationships, made new art and new friends, nurtured seeds into full-blown plants, and generally learned to relax, breathe, and slow down a bit more successfully.

I believe it's Ani DiFranco I'm quoting when I write, "if you aren't getting happier as you're getting older, something's wrong." I agree. Although I have my moments of antsy worry, wondering if I'm doing things the way I should, or if I am where I should be at this point in my life, I have enjoyed the fact that I can now, more than ever before, just ignore those voices by making something, going for a walk, or calling my sister. Expanding my Etsy shop (liontailpress.etsy.com) and watching my watermelons grow doesn't hurt either.


But, I ask you: when did birthdays suddenly start feeling like so much pressure? Pressure to have more fun than the last birthday, to actually ask for things you want this year, to see more loved ones, to eat more cake...Luckily, my birthday falls on a Monday, which means I will be at work during the day and won't have much free time to feel guilty about not partying harder. Thank the universe for Mondays! (I will never say this again).

Of all that I have to be so grateful for this year, perhaps the plastic dinosaur on the ice cream cake is Clarity. Sure, I have a million questions, but soon they will be made ever-so-slightly more lucid, for my mother has told me that my birthday gift from her this year will be an hour-long session with her "favorite psychic."


I must say I am both thrilled and riddled with cautious anticipation. This will surely be a new birthday experience and an insightful start to a brand new age.