it’s my birthday! i time traveled.

wanna hear something funny? you’re reading this sometime around july 23th, but i’m writing this on july 17th. i’m leaving for a month, but i couldn’t not talk to you on this special day. so hello blog, it’s my birthday!

i was born at 5:47 am on july 23rd. i was supposed to be born two months later, but i was not very patient as a baby, a trait that has carried into my adolescence. which i guess is almost over. i know my brain won’t stop developing for a while, but i feel like sixteen is when you really start to grow up. or you start to believe that you should have all of the privileges of being an adult, and that you’re so mature now. i wonder if that’s what i will feel when i’m sixteen. but i’ll still rest on my mothers shoulder when i get too tired to speak, and i’ll still bang my fists against the wall and cry when i can’t comprehend how i feel. some things just don’t change.

when i was little, i was very excited to be sixteen. on wednesdays, my mom would pick me up from school with my scooter, and we would order in chinese food and watch high school musical. i refused to watch anything else. my mother must have been so annoyed with me, because every single wednesday, without fail, we would end up on our couch watching high school musical. troy and gabriella were sixteen.

growing up, my father and i watched buffy the vampire slayer. i looked forward to coming back from a rigorous day of sixth grade and watching sarah michelle gellar stab vampires with mr. pointy. looking back, no eleven year old should have been watching buffy the vampire slayer. but i’m glad i did, because now it’s a go to choice of entertainment for my dad and i. i could have had a really bad day at school, or just be feeling sad, and buffy’s always there. so is my dad. and we don’t even need to say anything. only “do you want to watch buffy?” and i’ll just sit down on the couch and watch the action, and laugh when it’s funny, and cry when it gets sad. and then all of a sudden, i feel better. buffy was sixteen.

my family got me two weeks after i was born. i was officially adopted eighteen months after i was born by my mother, father and my brother. my brother is seven months older than me, and turned sixteen in december. and i love him very much. as much as i make fun of him, he is my longest and tallest friend and nothing about him is bad. so i guess sixteen can’t be bad at all.

i am looking forward to being sixteen. when you read this, i already will be. isn’t that crazy? i think so. have a wonderful summer!

“i am a tall tree

i weep like a willow.

my scars are hiding

my branches don't show.

yes, i am a tall tree

with roots like a newborn.

no wind is blowing

but over i go.” - “take me down easy” , james henry jr.