Musings on Being (Nearly) 24

Here's a corny little poem I wrote today on the chalkboard in Laupus Library when I should have been drawing the branching of the trigeminal nerve... Anatomy messes with your brain. And I'm out of practice, but I think it's a little bit fun.

Musings on Being (Nearly) 24

Tomorrow is my birthday.
Can we pretend to care?
Yesterday, I was 18.
I still feel like I'm right there.

But it's been almost a quarter century
Since I was spat out on the earth.
There was kicking and some screaming
And it's not changed much since birth.

What don't I feel at 24
That I did at 21?
I felt like I was growing up
But that life had just begun.

I thought I'd have a steady job.
I thought I'd have a house.
I thought I'd have a brand new car.
I thought I'd have a spouse.

Now I know that half of knowing
Is knowing you don't know,
And that falling on your face sometimes
Is the best way you can grow.

I'm just one of many ships
Tossed out upon the sea,
And if the waves can sink anyone,
Why wouldn't they sink me?

But ships like mine can weather storms
Though the bow may pitch and rock.
The passage will be treacherous,
But I come from tougher stock.

So raise a glass, my friends, to another year
And another dollar spent
On books and class and groceries,
On a crappy apartment's rent.

I'm still the girl you know and (mostly) love
And though life and school can take their toll,
They may erode my body and my mind,
But they'll never have my soul.