This week, my teenage years will come to an end as I celebrate my "golden birthday." Your golden birthday is the day you turn the same age as the date of your birthday - in my case, I'll turn twenty on April 20th. When I learned of this fact, it only added to the seemingly great importance surrounding this upcoming birthday, and I had quite a few reflections on the past two decades.

1. I have reached the most "adult" point in my life thus far (and that's terrifying).

If I were to have made a list of all the things that separate kids from adults (homes, bank accounts, jobs), I now check off most of those boxes.

2. I didn't appreciate the benefits of childhood until they'd passed me by.

Coloring for homework assignments? Carrying a Little Mermaid backpack un-ironically? Getting discounts just because I was under five feet tall? Ah, the good old days...

3. I'm probably wrong, and my mother is probably right.

(She doesn't have to know I'm aware of this).

4. I need far more sleep than I think I do.

The concealer under my eyes won't stop me from yawning in philosophy class.

5. Everyone looked bad in middle school - I was not special.

In retrospect, my braces, glasses, and shoulder-pad sweaters weren't so bad.

6: Also, everyone makes bad relationship decisions - that also does not make me special.

It's sort of comforting to know I'm not the only person with bad tastes in boys.

7. I'm a very different person at the end of nineteen than I was at the start of thirteen (perhaps a person I never even thought of becoming).

All of the pessimism I had toward the future back then, thankfully, didn't seep through into the present.

8. I can't do everything all the time, and that's okay.

Learning to say "no" is easier said than done. That shouldn't stop me from doing it.

9. It's perfectly okay to change my mind.

I can even do it multiple times in one day about the same thing!

10. Sometimes ideas are better in my head than in reality.

This is true a lot, and it's also a side effect of my having an overactive imagination. For instance, I really, really wanted a pet turtle now that I have my own place. Turns out they aren't really intended for studio apartment dwellers ... or people who can't be bothered to do their dishes daily, let alone clean a terrarium.

11. Kindness goes a long way.

Don't underestimate that!

12. It's okay to not be as put together as people think I am.

My life is far less organized than my calendar leads on.

13. I never look as bad as I think I do. I'm my worst critic.

Sometimes I just need to step away from the mirror and accept I'm in a mood.

14 I underestimated the joy of cooking.

It's so much more than a two hour process where your creation is gone in fifteen minutes.

15. It's normal to ask for help.

I should probably do it more frequently.

16. The day-to-day problems won't matter in the long run.

I can't let them get me down.

17. I had to like myself before I could even worry about other people liking me.

If iI don't like me, why should others? Now, I do. I might even say I'm kind of cool.

18. I always make things out to be worse than they really are.

The world is not always falling apart, despite what my Facebook status might say.

19. The only things I should regret are the things I was too scared to do.

And fear is way overrated.

20. It takes a while, but I've finally started to understand who I can count on in my life.

It only took twenty years...

So happy birthday to me, and here's to whatever this grand ol' year will bring!