A[n Abridged] Reflection on Life as I Have Recently Experienced It, with Resolution: The planning of my birthday celebrations was very much like my 22nd year on this planet. This year, due to several scheduling conflicts, I've had three different birthday celebrations: One with friends from home, One with friends from Ball State, and finally, tonight, I celebrated with my family. Planning and executing each night took much more work than usual, due to the several abnormal events surrounding both my own life, and the lives of those I chose to share my day(s) with. This effort has, without a doubt, left me feeling stretched and quite unbalanced. Tonight as I blew the candles out, I wished for only one thing: Happiness. 22 was not a happy year for me. Spending an entire year floundering, trying desperately and failing gloriously to develop a plan, has left me with these same aforementioned feelings: Stretch. Unbalance. Now I am praying to whomever or whatever controls our lives that the feelings I experienced during the celebrations themselves prove to be a parallel to 23. I am praying that, much like the grueling and frustrating time I spent figuring everything out for all 3 groups of people for my birthday, the fight I've had to put up during 22 is nothing more than necessary dues paid in order to receive a phenomenal blessing. I am walking into 23 choosing that this has to be the case. I am choosing that the delightful substance that made up the pieces of these celebrations themselves WILL be reflected in my next 358 days on this planet. I am praying that the positivity I am willing on myself proves to be enough to make it last. I do, however, acknowledge that I am a deeply emotional being, and therefore also pray that in the days I cannot find this positivity in myself, that I will be able to find enough of it somewhere else, that I can find some happiness in each day. As far as the song most of my generation rings in 23 with, I wish and pray that I don't have time this year to notice whether or not nobody likes me. 23 will be the year that I find enough happiness to like myself again enough for everyone. #CharacterLimits #CheckFBForTheUnabridgedVersion