Two Six

I hated turning 25, but as the year went on I actually came to realize that 25 is still young! I've gotten used to checking the 25-34 age box as opposed to the 18-24 box on paperwork (although I still cringe... there's a big difference between 25 and 34 y'all!) In hindsight, 25 was a great age and a good year. I'm trying to be optimistic about turning 26 today, because in a year I'll wish I were turning 26 again instead of 27, right?!

I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child, I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be… This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages…the delayed adolescent, the childish adult, but that they are in me to be drawn on; to forget is a form of suicide… Far too many people misunderstand what “putting away childish things” means, and think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grownup. When I’m with these people I, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grown-up, then I don’t ever want to be one. Instead of which, if I can retain a child’s awareness and joy, and “be” fifty-one, then I will really learn what it means to be grownup.

{Madeleine L’Engle}

I love this quote and it's so appropriate 20 years after my first age-related moment of panic. (I didn't want to turn 6. I don't know why.) To be honest, there's a lot to look forward to this year. A lot of unknowns. A lot of plans that may or may not pan out. The biggest one, of course, is a goal that I've been looking at for the last year and a half: running 26 miles for my 26th birthday. It looks like my first marathon will be the Omaha Marathon in September. While I really want to beak my 10k time from last year's event, it just makes sense to run this marathon instead of tackling the notoriously hilly marathons in Lawrence or Kansas City. And I don't want to travel to a new city to run a new race distance. I officially start marathon training at the end of May. Wohoo!

 My birthday has started off well. My mom's mom used to bring us doughnuts before school on our birthdays and I always requested double-chocolate cake donuts. Ross' sister gave me a mini-donut pan for my birthday and when it came in the mail yesterday, I knew what I was making for breakfast today:

Cutest donuts ever. Thanks, Emily! I feel 26 years young right now.