what happens next?

            "After you turn twenty-two, you have nothing to look forward to."

            "Things are boring after your twenty-second birthday."

     "You really have to start being an adult."

"Now you have to be responsible."

I know I'm not the only one who has heard at least two of these comments before.  And how depressing is it to constantly hear that our life is over, that we are officially "old?"

There are quite a few stages that we pass through to become adult women, and apparently, twenty-one is the "final step."

On our thirteenth birthday, we are considered a teenager and enter the category of "young adult."  We are legally allowed to watch PG-13 movies (FINALLY) and this usually marks some unpleasant biological changes as well (if you catch my drift).

Turning sixteen is the marker of a young girls' coming of age in America.  In Hispanic countries, fifteen is the equivalent, hence Quinceañera.  This birthday is essentially the celebration of being available to date, although my parents refused to celebrate this way....

At eighteen girls officially become women.  At this point, we become adults, graduate high school, apply to college, vote, etc.  This is an exciting year, I think we can all agree.

The twenty-first birthday party is usually a huge blowout with all of our college friends where we take one too many shots, go to the bars, pass out on the floor and embarrass ourselves to celebrate the legal drinking age.  Sounds like a lot of fun right?

But what happens after twenty-one? Does life end?  Is it really that bad?  

I think that turning twenty-two is just as, if not more important than turning thirteen, sixteen, eighteen, and twenty-one.  This birthday should be celebrated as a milestone of discovery, the opening of a door.  I think that once we turn twenty-two, we are just beginning the most exciting part of our lives.  We learn who our real friends are, we have the freedom to love, travel, work, learn, read, think and spend time discovering who we are.  We become women, women who are able to intelligently formulate opinions, think for ourselves, and make a difference. 

Being twenty-two isn't the end, it is just the beginning.