The 21st birthday dream

You know what I want for my 21st birthday? To be in London.

I want a fabulous, unforgettable, photo-stuffed 21st birthday, and I want it to happen in London, which just so happens to be one of the things on my bucket list just waiting to be crossed off. The going to London part, that is. Not necessarily having my 21st birthday there. Not that I would object to having a London 21st birthday celebration.

I know I sound like a spoiled little diva when I say that. I know it's just another birthday, and that 21 is just another year older, another year closer to visible wrinkles (as if they haven't started showing up already!), but the fact of the matter is that I still want it. My family's not big into cliched "big birthday" celebrations. We're not big on the whole "You're turning sixteen so let's throw a huge party!" We don't do the "You're eighteen! Woo! You're legal! Let's go out and celebrate that fact!" In fact, we honestly don't do the "You're 21 and a real adult! Let's celebrate that adulthood with some drinks at the bar!" either. But nobody said I have to have a plain ordinary birthday either.

So ideally, I'd be spending my birthday with my friends, probably at the same Thai restaurant we always end up going to whenever someone's birthday came around. Maybe my boyfriend would be there, too, and it'd be low-key and great. Then maybe at the end of the night, I might be bold enough to buy my first bottle of wine because I'm finally legal enough to do so, and my boyfriend and I would have a glass of wine and then either fall right asleep or compile video evidence of my alcohol-influenced self, depending on the results of the wine. But as much as I would miss having my friends there to celebrate with me, I can always Facebook and Skype them. Social media and the media are wonderful things. Wouldn't it be grand to say that the year I became legal was the year I was touristing the crap out of the most touristy city in the most touristy country? I say it would.

So here's to hoping. Here's to crossing my fingers so hard and so often that I no longer have feeling in them. Here's to pinning every post about studying abroad on Pinterest. Here's to looking up Google images of how beautifully breathtaking London is at night and in the day.

Here's to receiving the acceptance letter soon.