the golden year

I turned 25 recently... a quarter century as most people title it. But it's also my golden birthday. I turned 25 on the twenty-fifth day of the month. Gold is long-lasting and unaffected by the passage of time. I wonder what this year will bring.

I spent the special day with my parents since they came to visit me for the week. I've been gearing up for their visit for a while now. I'm always a little tense when I spend time with my parents. I love my parents. They're great but sometimes I find that a week with them is more than I can handle. It's never too long before a splurge of arguments, disagreements, nagging, sarcasm and negative attitude breaks lose. Sometimes even a phone call is too much. I'm easily agitated when my parents are around. Parents are the most critical, demanding and influential people in your life. Influential in the sense that the smallest words they say can have life changing impacts. If you want to know what someone is really like, be around them when they're with their family.

So when my parents came to visit, I prepared for the worse. But to my surprise, there was only one little spat that I had with my dad. It was tiny. I simply lost my patience for a split second and made a snappy comment. Then again, I was stuck in a 4-hour lineup to cross the Canadian border and traffic brings the ugliest monster out of me (even uglier than what my parents are capable of). Although, it wasn't easy. My tongue is swollen from all the biting I had to do in order to hold back all the things I really wanted to say to them. Although I don't know if not saying it is really all that different since I still have the thought in my head. I think it does. If I said it out loud, that would have opened up a whole can of arguments. I really don't want to argue any more. I'm tired of always arguing with them. After twenty-some odd years of talking back, I think I'm finally done. I'm giving up my pride. Perhaps, I'm finally growing up.

Reflecting on that whole week has made me realize how much the Lord has changed me. For some brief moments, I actually had fun with my parents and enjoyed seeing them interact with my friends here. I really appreciated my dad cooking up a storm as I invited 30 of my friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. I won't forget that. I'm thankful for family and friends. I'm thankful for the blessed twenty five years.