Whenever I talk about my family, I always say that my sister is “the sweet one” because, compared to my brother and myself, my sister is the sweet one. She’s the baby of the family, the one who always hangs out with my parents (and thinks that it’s cool hehe); and now she’s 18 years old!

When I turned 18 I had been living in the US for almost a year and I was on my way to being a freshman in college. It was the first time where being a “grown up” felt like a reality. The thing is, that feeling kept overwhelming me (and sometimes it still does) until I decided that, adults are really just like children, we just have different toys and less time in the day to be carefree, due to more responsibility. However, the biggest thing was, being an adult doesn’t mean I have to suddenly change the way I think and view life. For that matter, sometimes the way we think and view life as a child is more beneficial to us than any “adult” view.

There is a certain maturity now that you’re older, there were mistakes that you learn from, life lessons that you experienced and that is what maturity is, learning from the past – not changing how you think. So, happy birthday, keep being your sweet self and have a great year. Being “grown-up” is overrated, but maturity is valuable. 😉