Why does turning a year older feels like nothing to me? Nothing in the sense that when I woke up this morning, turned to look into the mirror and touched my hair, I was waiting for a certain feeling to approach me. A feeling that says: “You’re 19 today. You’re a year older and everything from yesterday turned ahead when you opened your eyes and welcomed the sunshine.”

I didn’t get the feeling I was expecting during that time of the day. All I had was a normal sentiment that says: “Get up and face the world, you’re going to be late for class.”

I got up and realized that everyone else in the household was fast asleep. I suddenly remembered that I slept before midnight thus missing my change of age. Weird, I said. I was that tired to sleep my birthday off.

Then off I went to prepare myself, whip up an oatmeal breakfast and run for school and say hello to Statistics. Suddenly, I heard my phone ring and saw that nine messages were waiting for me. I checked them and thought “It is my birthday.”

To date, this is the strangest birthday of my life. No plans, no schedules, no expectations. I was just waiting for the day to come and end. It was like that, it was just a come and go for me. All I wanted was to turn 19 and declare that I am 19. Just for maturity, maybe.

But that changed when people inside our house woke-up and greeted me a happy birthday. That changed when I got into school and saw several of familiar and unfamiliar faces smiling then greeting me after. That changed when people were actually making me feel that my day was more than special. That changed when I realized that I had no reasons to not celebrate because a part of me, in living, is celebrating it for me.

I’ve always been grateful for what I have, I’ve always replied to every kindness that has been sent upon me. Sometimes I do that in signals, in words or even in smirks. I do that in every way I could just to show that I am thankful.

And today is the day to be more than thankful - I could have never survived this turning of age for not the people around me. I am 19, I am older compared to yesterday. I am in my last year of actually being a teen.

Screw maturity, I was wrong that it comes with age. It comes with you and it could never be defined in numbers. One at the least of his or her life should be happy and stay happy. Remember the days that are worth living, throw those that aren’t.

Life is too short and pretty for us to waste. Life comes to us once and it will never come back if we lose it.

On this day that marks my 19 years of living, I would like to say thank you and more thank you’s to you for making it special and for making it worth remembering. All the love goes out to you <3