to be… a quarter of a century old…

Flower Originally uploaded by jadepearli.

so i’m 25. how does that work?! i could wax (un)eloquent about what it means to celebrate my silver anniversary on this planet, but it’s the same drivel you might read on any other mediocre blog… about being older in years but not feeling much different, about feeling young and stupid yet technically being older/wiser/married. And so on and so forth. Or maybe i’m just hitting a cynical rut. Yea, maybe it’s just a cynical rut.

But it’s amazing how near death situations can cut through all that nihilistic crap and give you a good whupping of sense. I won’t go into too much detail, but I’ll say that tonight my car participated in a brief ballet dance on the slick of highway of 24 in the heavy rains of this evening. While my car stuck to its cues and only strayed a little from its lane to avoid collision, its partner, a silver mustang in the lane to our right, was not so lucky, going so far as to careen within six inches in front of me, slowly spinning into the third lane, the fourth, and then slamming into the center divider. I have no idea how we didn’t collide, and how my car didn’t hydroplane as well when i tapped on the brakes. We could see the passengers in the car as it slid past us…. I didn’t hear the thud of their cease-slide, but jer did… I almost started crying as soon as jer said he heard it…. I really hope they’re ok…..

and then i started thinking about what could have happened if they had started hydroplaning just a little bit sooner…. of if we had been going just a little bit faster… or if there were other cars in the lanes to our left… or i had lost control of my car after i saw the mustang…. and if another car could have hit that car while it lay stopped in the middle of the freeway. so many what ifs, so many maybes. my knees started shaking; they’re still shaking now.

For my 25th birthday, I was given (yet another) second chance. Good gracious, i really better do something with it. =P