After the fourth HIV / AIDS presentation of the year, 5 of my students came up to me and asked if I could arrange an appointment for them to get tested. A huge accomplishment!

What is it about turning 26?

It’s not so much the number. 26. It’s the fact that 26 is so much closer to 30. I’m not afraid of turning 30. Trust me, I’m not one of those women who studies her wrinkles in the mirror and freaks out to find that she has acquired 3 new sun spots…I like to call them freckles. Looking back at 24, I am not at all where I thought I would be at 26, but I am exactly where I need to be today.

So what is it about 26? Maybe it’s that 25 was such a good year for me, it’s going to be hard to top. But as I was thinking about turning a year older and having lived the past year of my life to the point of tears, I couldn’t help but smile and be grateful that I am here living my life, raw.

With my freckles and dirty hair, my bucket baths and mosquito net, my round Latina body that doesn’t seem to want to go away, my flip flops in the rain, and the sweat on my brow, I am off to another day in my 26 year old life.

Some quotes on growing older by a woman I read and admire so often…

“Why in this civilization do we value the woman who ‘stays young’? Why ‘stay young’ when adventure lies in change and growth?”

“I feel it in myself…I am definitely much older than I was a year ago, and I rather like it. There’s less pressure.”

May Sarton