And This Is Just The Beginning

There's a time in your life when everything is magical. A time where you really didn't know anything. Halloween was a time looked forward to, for the mere fact of the scary Jr. High kids in dressed in crazy costumes and gorging yourself on candy. Easter was when the Easter Bunny graced you with his presence and left baskets in the morning. Christmas was a time where you got tons of presents and lots and lots of food. A day where you wake your parents up at 4 in the morning because you just can't wait anymore. And your birthday was the best. You couldn't sleep the night before because you were so excited for the coming day. The day where everything was centered around you. The day where you got to have your own party, get your own presents, blow out your own candles, and do whatever the crap you want because it was YOUR day. Period. End of conversation.
But when you get older...everything seems to gradually loose it's magic. You no longer go trick-or-treating. It's cold, too many little kids running around, and you have so many other things you can be doing. Easter just becomes another Sunday...but with special significance in another way. It becomes a day of spending with family and reflecting. The only time you wake up at 4 in the morning is for Black Friday so you can get all your Christmas presents cheap and early. Christmas day looses the magic just by the sheer fact of knowledge gained. You'd rather sleep in late than open presents before the sun even rises. And your birthday....just turns into another day. You grow older and you still have to go to work, to school, do homework you put off till the last minute. The only ones who give you presents are your family and the people you happen to be around at the moment. It's just another year. And you come to realize how much you don't really miss all the hullabaloo about your birthday in the past. You'd rather just have your close friends in the same room and be able to talk with them.
But a birthday does signify time. Another year under your belt...another year to look back at and wonder if you chose the right things. And maybe, another time to just remember the magic of days gone by.
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years"
-Abraham Lincoln