22 years old.

As you can see on the top of my Samsung Galaxy: many notifications from Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Viber, Gmail for my birthday, of course! (thanks again to my Uncle Bernie! Btw, the protection case, both front & back won't stay on the phone, it keeps removing itself...)

 I turned twenty two today. 

Nothing changed, but I knew it was a different day.

Birthdays have never been such a big deal to me for after all, nothing really changes, apart from the fact that we grow older. 

Yet, October 5th is a special day, the only day when you get a lot of attention and that you feel very important. Facebook and Twitter covered me with happy birthday messages, even from people I seldom hear from.

Today was nice though. As I have already said, less ordinary and a bit more special. Here in the USA, when you are the birthday-girl, you are congratulated with hugs (something I am not used to).
The funny thing is that no sooner had I left Middlebury College Bookstore than I saw my roommate and the following occured:

- Hey, what's up?

- I've just come back from the bookstore. 15% off after all, eh!
- 15% off? *confused for less than a second* What? It's your birthday?? Why haven't you told meeeee? Come here for a hug!!

Today was also different from the October 5th of these past twenty one years because it was the first time I was all alone. No parents, no siblings, no grandparents, no uncles, no other relatives. Whenever it is someone's birthday, we would go to my grandparents' house to celebrate it among family members in a simple but warm way. Birthday cake(s) and champagne. The person born on that day would blow the candles then everybody would spent the afternoon together, talking about everything and what-not. That is how my asian family rolls. Family matters! So it was weird not to do anything with them today. As a matter of fact, this made me realize even more how alone I was here.

Although I have never celebrated my birthday with my boyfriend, the fact that we are both very far away from each other is more than tough, and on these special days, bittersweetness is what our lips taste like. Presents-wise, I got to do a bit of shopping at the bookstore and...received an envelope from my boyfriend! It contained a mini photo-album of him and I. He got me something else and is still struggling whether he should ship it to me so I can already have it or if he should listen to his selfish-side that would rather have me open the present on December, so that he can see my reaction. 

Even though it may sound insignificant,it was odd not to wake up in the morning and to see my brother quickly saying "Ouais, joyeux anniversaire!" in a still-sleepy yet trying to be cheerful tone, while my sister would exclaim "bon anniversaire timooyoomotoo!". My parents would be nicer to me on that day, and my mom would call me "ma puce". My grandma and grandpa would be extra-nice and give me extra...notes as well. I find it amusing how my grandma gives them to me, by usually saying "Ong Ba Ngoai cho tien nhưng phả cogan học!" The phone would keep ringing, and everytime my mom would tell me to pick it up because it is for me: who else could it be but my uncles? Hehe.

These are the kind of things that go unnoticed throughout your life but that pop up in your face when you are far away from home, and that makes you realize they are so much more significant than they seem.

 Worse, any birthday-girl would wish her boyfriend was here to cover her with even more affection and attention on that day. At that point, it could be any day, the both of us would cherish every single day we would have together.

Tough it up, 22 year-old birthday girl!