Today I turned twenty-six years old. I must say that I am coping a little better with this birthday compared to the let down of last year. One year ago today I felt a sense of depression at passing out of the 18-24 age demographic and legitimately entering into my mid-twenties. Although twenty-six does sound worse than twenty-five I have a few reasons for not hating this October 8 as much as I did the last one.

First off, I feel that twenty-five and twenty-six are pretty much one and the same. I am still smack in my mid-twenties. I don’t have to change my Twitter bio as it still says that “I am a guy in my mid-twenties.” Besides renewing my driver’s license, there is no big change with this new year, no glaring reminder that I am getting old. Twenty-six is not the starting point or ending point for anything in life. Just saying the two ages aloud does not even bring about that much difference to my ear.

Secondly, most of the people I hang out with and deal with on a daily basis are older than me. This makes the pill of having a birthday a little easier to swallow. True, I do work on a college campus and I am constantly around young and vibrant student-athletes but besides that I roll with people who are my senior. So even if my friends give me a hard time about being old today, I can throw it right back in the faces of most of them.

Finally, I am just more accepting of life in general. Aging is a part of the human condition and I can’t stop Father Time. I think I pretty much just wasted all of my “age scorn” to last me a couple years after I turned twenty-five. I just don’t have it in me this year to get all worked up and bothered about something that I can’t control. Rather, instead of feeling sad about my age I feel thankful about my age. I have amazing people around me. At twenty-six years old I have a great job, superb health, and the best family anyone could ask for. Some people won’t ever have all three of those things in their lifetime. I am not in a bad spot.

Tonight I am celebrating my birthday at Buffalo Wild Wings with friends. Nothing like eating wings and watching some football with good company! Thank you all so much for all the birthday wishes, texts, Facebook posts, and Twitter mentions from today. I am ready to kick off this new birthday year with all of you and make it as positive as possible. Don’t Blink.