Today is my Birthday

Sooo...today is my birthday.

I have managed to survive another year.

I can recall the days when I never thought I was never going to make it to ten. I was overwhelmed with adult responsibilities and each day was a challenge, but I did finally make it to ten.
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Then there was the "I'll never make it to being a teenager". As if becoming a teenager was going to make all my problems go away and I would suddenly be all grown up. NOT! None of that happened and for some cosmic irony all got worse!
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I just knew I would never make it to fifteen! I thought for sure one of these days my father was going to really kill me. I pushed the old man's buttons ever chance I could get. It's a miracle I survived and he did too!
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Why sixteen was my next goal I don't know but it was a day to celebrate while my Aunt was away.
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Seventeen! I made it at last! The day I had been waiting for..FREEDOM! No rules, no parents, just me and my friend parting the nights away. Some where in all that I thought I had arrived to adulthood with all the knowledge there was for me to know. I thought it so deeply, I got married. What did I know, I was just a kid!
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Twenty-one..I had done so much, see too much, been hurt too much and experienced so much. AND yet I was alone, confused and looking to to drown in the bottle and escape from the world. The possibility of seeing another year was not in the plan.
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Twenty-two..Yup I made it through, surprisingly enough. I was swept away by a stranger to another city, never to go back again!
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Twenty-eight..Bored and itching for more to life, than what I had always been doing since I was a kid... I left my happiness behind and drove into hell and met the devil himself. I was begging to die and again seeing anymore birthdays was not in the plan.
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Thirty-three..Suddenly I woke up from my nightmare and went back to happiness.
I felt like I had been reborn on that day. My perspective of things were finally clear and my love for life had been gifted to me. I was no longer searching or drowning, I had finally found peace within myself. It was a long journey to get through, but hey I made it and I am a better person for it.
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Forty-one (where the heck did that number come from), yup I said it for all to marvel at. I am no longer hiding in the past, the future is all I want to see.

Soo..today is my birthday, with a bright future ahead of me.