A New Year

And so another birthday has come and gone and it's one that I'm unlikely to forget for a while. In the last couple of years I started to feel like things like birthdays and Christmas are losing their magic and fun - this year proved me wrong. In fact I did have a great (and very memorable) birthday a few years ago but for reasons which no longer really mean anything to me - hence the memory becomes less important as well. Yesterday (well the whole weekend actually) was one of the nicest days I've had in a long time and it has affirmed to me why people enjoy their birthday so much. I don't feel any different - why would I? - and the only thing that I'll have to get used to this time is instead of putting my old age down, I have to put my new age down - it's just a number at the end of the day. 

When you are a kid, age doesn't matter. When you are an early years teenager, age matters. When you are getting to the end of your teens and your age doesn't have any legal or personal meaning to you, it begins to lose it's significance again. It's almost as if everyone becomes the same age once they reach about 21. You're not a child anymore, you're an adult and you are treated like that - nobody cares about your age. I've often thought (as have many of my peers) that childhood was going to be sorely missed but being an adult is so much better. Yes it comes with it's own pressures and strains but you have so much control that you feel like an individual - no matter what age you are!

This academic year has flown through but at the same time it feels like I've been here for years. I can't decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing but I do know that I've only managed to clock up just one more year so things haven't moved on that much. In the grand scheme of things, a year doesn't actually mean much. Yes a lot has changed around me but I don't really feel all that different to when I flew the nest towards the end of last year. Any changes that have come about are only good things and, in some weird way, I don't see them as 'changes' but more as advances.

So yes, I am a year older and a year uglier but I'm still the same Martin that left home back in September. I'm still the same guy who all you people from home know and I'm still the same guy that all you people that met at university all those months ago. Apologies about the shortness of this post but there really is nothing 'ground-moving' to write about. Wednesday will be better - I promise!

Thanks for reading,

Martin