A few months ago I wrote an article about being 20, and how 20-years-old is the strangest age we will ever be. (I recommend you check it out.) Old enough to be old, yet young enough to be young, with an endless confusion of what life is and where it will take us. Thinking that the past 365 days couldn’t be long enough; that 20 would last forever, and that 21 would never come. But now, it’s here. Officially 21-and-two-weeks-old and how do I feel? Hated by my body with a quickly decreasing bank account. 

One of the most recent conversations with my dad went as so:      “Hey Meg, I see you’ve found a new home away from home?” Me: “What do you mean?” Him: “Well, according to your bank statements it seems like you’ve been living at that Where Else place lately.”

So, that’s my life right now. Freshly 21 and quickly learning the realities of this age. Not to mention I’m absolutely loving it. I truly believe there’s nothing cooler than being able to by a beer, to walk into a liquor store, and to proudly show off my vertical ID. I smile when the bouncer or bartender sees that it’s not horizontal yet, and how they so easily want to send me the other direction. But nope, I’m 21 now and life couldn’t be better.  

Besides that, though, I’ve really been thinking about some things since my birthday. Being legal has given me a new perspective on not only what I’m doing to my body, but the realities of drinking too much and spending all my money.   

I always tell myself that there’s a reason why I worked all summer. I worked to have an income in order to pay for my life on my own. Of course, right now at least, it’s not possible to work for a living to pay for everything, but trust me: my parents make me pay for as much as I’m making. I work to eat, I work to pay for my car, I work to pay for Alpha Phi. It's just now with being 21… I work to be social on the weekends. All of my older friends always told me that 21 is expensive, but it’s definitely more expensive than I realized. Not to mention the day after my birthday my friends and I signed a lease for our apartment next year, $605 later, spring break is coming up, and I’m studying abroad this summer in Spain. All of which are not included in my normal lifestyle spending. I can’t afford to be 21 at this point, but I also think I’m still in the “honeymoon” stage of it all. Going to the bars is awesome and everything about being legal finally is exciting, but here in a few weeks it probably won’t be as cool, and I’ll probably realize that I need to get my life back together. So in conclusion for my decreasing bank account: I just need to be more conscious of what I’m spending.  

The second reality I’ve found in the past two weeks is the harm I’ve been doing to my body. Yes, I’m young and I need to make the most of this time, but at the same time, drinking and not going to the gym, not getting enough sleep and not letting my body slow down every once in a while, is really becoming a detriment to my health. I don’t believe I have an unhealthy lifestyle. I’m just someone who says, “yes” to everything and is on-the-go 24/7. But with being 21, this has just added a whole new form of exhaustion into my life. I’ve really seen how I need to give my body time to relax, and that if I don’t, I get sick. Being 21 has made me realize I need to listen to my body.   

Not only this, but with being legal, I’ve figured out how drinking too much is NEVER necessary. I completely understand that this happens sometimes, everyone can have a little too much sometimes. But, now that I’m 21, I have complete, 100 percent control over how much alcohol goes into my body. It’s never fun to have blurry memories and, in all honesty, being 21 has made me realize I don’t need to have that much to drink. 

I couldn’t of had a better birthday. My family took me to Nashville, Tennessee. 16 of my friends drove down, including my best friend who drove from Michigan to celebrate. My parents were there, along with three other families that came from Colorado. We had a huge crowd, all there to celebrate my 21st birthday. Yes, I unfortunately missed the “Oct. 19, 1993” picture next to the sign at Brothers, but I had zero reasons to complain considering I was in Nashville with all of my favorite people. I didn’t need to be at Purdue, having every single person I know buying me drink after drink. I didn’t want to have a birthday that wouldn’t be remembered. Instead, I had a birthday that was unforgettable, and hands down, was the greatest moment of my life so far.  

In conclusion for drinking, being 21 has simply made me realize I have control. I hold the reins for what goes into my body, and there should never be a reason that it should be too much. I had the greatest birthday because I didn’t have alcohol shoved down my throat. And although I missed the 21st birthday experience at the Purdue bars, I had a celebration that couldn’t of been beat. (Spending Friday–Sunday morning in Nashville, of course I spent my Sunday night at Harry’s.)    

Let me tell you, I’ve had an awesome two weeks. Being 21 is the greatest part of my college experience. And even better, I’ll be legal for the rest of my life. Although there won’t be an experience like this to look forward to again, I’m simply living in the moment right now, and making the best of finally being 21. I’ve learned the realities of my bank account, as well as the actual drinking part. And that reality is that I’m still old enough to be old yet young enough to be young. There’s still just as much confusion with life, if not more, now that I’ve added the unnecessary exhaustion and the detriment to my body. The only difference between 21 and 20 is a horizontal ID. We all wait for this moment for years and it finally came, and it’s finally over. So, let's cheers to that.