Growing Up

My oldest friend had her first baby on February 18th. This is the girl that knew me when I was a baby (she was about two), and now she has a baby of her own. We used to compare popsicle tongues, play on the swings in my backyard and build “a house of pillows” when it was raining. We were expert pillow house builders. We lived in Seattle, after all, so we had lots of rainy days to practice. His name is Cooper Bo Gordon Meek, but I’m planning on calling him friend baby, at least for a little while. That’s the nickname Beth gave me when we first met, so I think it’s appropriate.

But my experience with adulthood among my friends doesn’t end there. I have another friend who is pregnant, a female friend who joined the army (I have three other male friends that did so also, but that was back in 2001-ish), another with a husband and three kids, and another that is getting married this summer. The thing is, we are all getting toward the age where making such adult decisions and facing such adult situations seems appropriate. We aren’t “engaged and underaged” or tragically pregnant sans high school diploma. Now, people get excited when we get engaged, and even if we are pregnant with no spouse it is not tragic. We can handle it now, as much as anyone ever can handle it anyway. We are allowed to feel joy in our adulthoods.

Which brings me to, well, me. I desperately want something adult to happen to me. Now don’t mistake this for a cry for a ring or a baby (or a bunk bed at boot camp for that matter!) because that is not what I am asking for. I just want something to happen, something to get my life going again. I know that I am going to have to bring this change about for myself, I can’t just sit around and wait for the world to do it for me, but I can’t decide what I want to do. I can’t even decide where I want to move this summer. In with mom and save oodles? Or live with Marissa, continue to take joy in tending to my own house, and have lots of fun living with her? Then after that? Save, pray for a stroke of luck, and figure out how to move to England? Or is there really only one reason I want to move there (anyone remember Felicity?)? Or do I continue looking and trust that a new opportunity will present itself here?