Being 23

I just realized I’ll be 23 this year. I know it’s a little too late to realize this. But the sudden realization hit me like “BOOM... OMG I’m gonna be TWENTY THREE!!!”... Why do I sound so shocked? This was bound to happen. Some might say, “Hey, take a chill-pill hon, you are just turning 23, life is still young and hip for you!”... Hmm, should that make me feel relieved? I’ve lately been asking myself some crazy questions that I can’t answer. Whenever I pop a crazy question to myself, I just open my mouth to answer but alas, there is no answer.

So, the pros and cons of turning 23. Let me give some mathematical insight on the number 23:

•  23 is the ninth prime number.
•  It’s the smallest odd prime which is not a twin prime.
•  It’s also a 5^th factorial prime, the 3^rd Woodall prime (whatever that means!!  Found these stuff on wiki)

I also observed from the movie “The Beautiful Mind” (which is based on a real-life story of John Forbes Nash , the noble prize winning economist) that Mr. Nash was obsessed with the number 23 and that same number was the root cause for his nervous breakdown. How sad... I sure hope I don’t get a nervous breakdown by turning 23. I sometimes feel, just like the number 13, 23 holds some mysterious weight age about it that would cause people to go mad and think up crazy theories (just like how I’m writing about all these even though I know none of this can really matter since this age will pass and I’ll be 24 next year and that will be a different horror show for sure!!)

Some of the good or ignorant things about turning 23:

•             I’ll be old enough to know what the hell is going around me but I’m young enough to ignore it and stay oblivious to my surroundings.
•        I’m nearing 30 yet I've left my brains back at high school!
•       Well 23 is two years above 21, so I have every right to get drunk whenever I please. (But some crazy dreams are best left to stay as dreams!)

It’s so hard to come up with good stuff to support my age, when all I can do is whine that I’m turning 23. And I just had an epiphany that every even year, my age turns odd. This year March 11Th, 2012, I’ll be turning 23! So what did I infer from this so called epiphany?? I have no idea, but something feels oddly wrong about aging. Every year it’s the same with me. Neither am I happy nor comfortable to have my age incremented every 365 days or so. I stand in front of the mirror and observe all the changes I can spot. Well, frustratingly changes are hard to tell when you look at yourself constantly every day. Still I spot a few hateful white hairs here and there that shine amidst my black hair. It’s acceptable that age has to show one way or the other. But why should my hair turn white?? Can’t age leave my hair alone? So, I decide to take refuge at the hair salon to dye my hair to my favourite shade of chocolate brown.

But no amount of “hair dye with no ammonia extracts” can cure me of aging. I so badly wish to get hold of the elixir of life or the sorceries’ stone from the Harry Potter book. Ah well, life happens and I just have to go with the waves.  But on a bright note, being 23 is not that bad. But don’t ask me in what ways it’s not bad (I’m still figuring it out!). If you are still reading this, then please pray stop, my ramblings have begun again!

My college friends have planned to give me birthday bums and I’m rigging out master plans to escape them on my birthday.  But I’ll be meeting the same friends on Monday on the inevitable train journey to Bengaluru for project classes and so I don’t think I can completely escape them this time!!

Ah well, even though I feel like the least happy person to celebrate my birthday, I’m still feeling good that I have friends who are on the same boat as me. I don’t have to sail the boat of ‘aging’ all alone. Yet being born early in a year does nothing but age you faster than most of your friends, who even though are born on the same year as you, yet they remain a year younger while you turn 23. I have quite a few friends whose birthday falls in November and December. Damn! They turned 22 just 3 months ago and here I am turning to a whole other year!!

But the bottom line is that I feel like my youngster quota is getting over too soon. Soon I’ll be in the “aunty” category (maybe I already am! I’ve already endured getting called as aunty by those kids that sell flowers or toys on the streets :-/). But still, not even god can stop me from getting a year older every year. On the plus side, at least this year I’ll try to meet up with some of my resolutions, like graduating and landing a job for starters.

But these have to wait. Right now, I’ll be a brand new girl to the house of 23. I welcome myself to this odd numbered age and I just hope this year will end on an even and positive note. Fingers crossed!

Being 23
A reason to celebrate?
Oh no! please no, no!!

You are 23

Give us a birthday treat

Commands' from my dear friends

Its bound to happen

I am 23 and there's

Nothing, I can do to be!!