25 Was Good to Me

As I've said before, December is a very special month for me. Especially because my birthday is so close to the end of the year, it's usually the time for me to reminisce about the past year; the time for me to remember the obstacles I've faced and also the good times that I've had.

Yesterday, I turned 26! As usual, I didn't feel any older ... and I am glad. 25 was good to me. 2015 was a good year and I couldn't be more grateful. I finally finished a year of articling that felt like it would never end, I got called to the Ontario bar (officially became a lawyer!), I got a job in BC, I moved to Vancouver, I got called to the BC bar, two of my closest friends got engaged ... and that's just to name a few. It feels like I just celebrated my "quarter of a century" birthday with my friends in Toronto. It feels like just yesterday that I was thinking about what 2015 would bring. It's both thrilling and scary to think about how fast time "flies". Thrilling because I've experienced so many new opportunities in such a short amount of time and scary because I realize that time passes no faster now than it always did. It just seems like it goes by quicker because we forget to live in the moment.

As much as I hate to admit it, living in the moment is actually something very hard to do (at least for me). I'm a "planner" and perfectionist ... and if you are too, then you will understand what I mean when I say that oftentimes it's very difficult for me to enjoy the present moment without (over)thinking about or planning for what's ahead. Nonetheless, I am very aware of this, so I try to catch myself when I'm not being present.

On Friday, Sameer planned a surprise birthday dinner for me. The plan was for us to go to Chewies downtown Vancouver for dinner.  I thought it was just going to be the two of us, but he had invited a lot of our friends without me knowing and it was an awesome surprise. At the beginning of the night, I caught myself obsessing about insignificant things i.e. whether I was over/underdressed for the restaurant, I forgot to spray on my perfume before I left the house, whether I seemed surprise when I walked in ... and the list goes on. There was actually a moment that I remember very clearly when I looked around at all the people who had come out to celebrate my birthday and I realized that likely no one really cares. And in that moment, (believe it or not, in my state of semi-inebriation), I had some form of epiphany ... in 10 or 20 years, what I'm going to or want to remember from the night is not that I was over/underdressed or that I forgot to put on perfume, etc ... What I would want to remember is:

1. how happy I felt to be able to enjoy such good company;
2. how grateful I was to have someone who cared about me so much to go out of their way to plan a surprise for me; and
3. how lucky I am to have so many people who would take time out of their day to celebrate my birthday with me.

"Forever is composed of nows." - Emily Dickinson