Tuesday, August 05, 2008

So, tell me about 25.

I have this thing about stories, stories from other people's lives. I could sit and listen to someone tell their personal tales for hours on end. It is an extension of people watching really, a deeper version. You don't just see how someone moves in the world, you see why they move in the world they way that they do. It is eye opening. And probably why this blogging thing draws me in the way it does.

And so in (belated) honor of my 25th birthday, humor me and tell me a little about YOUR twenty-fifth year. The whos, whens, whys...the music, the movies. Where did you live, who did you date, what was your job? Any of it, all of it. Leave it in the comments, no gift wrap necessary.

Me, 24 years and some months ago.

45 comments:

Ben and Bennie said...

Most of my 25th year was spent as the lead singer of Jackyl so I can't hardly remember any of it...or at least tell you about it on a family blog.

BTW, I still can't get used to the smell of semi-digested Pediasure even after 8 years.

Ben and Bennie said...

PS - the year was 1987/88. You might have been potty trained by then.

Katie said...

Oh Kyla...I don't think I'd like to remember my 25th year at all.

It was certainly my darkest year...shadowed by illness, death and depression. But the good news is, I made it to 26 just the same ;)

epi said...

Aww, so cute : ) Happy birthday! I have yet to reach 25, so no advice there... 23 seems to be going pretty well though!

Beck said...

Oh, easy. At my 25th birthday party I was at a BUSH party with my parents and my not-yet husband and I were driving my baby brother home because he was only 12 and needed to go to bed before people got too drunk and we heard on the news that Princess Diana had just been killed.

Amy Urquhart said...

Let's see...when I was 25 I had just moved to Toronto, my first "real place" (other than university) on my own. I had a roommate, a very good friend of mine, and I had been working at my full-time job for about a year. I LOVED living in the city. Sometimes I miss it. My blog archives go back to 2002, so technically I could just go there to see what the heck I was doing. It was a happy time for me.

AJU5's Mom said...

So I am assuming you are referring more to the 26th year - when you are 25...
I was married for almost a year, starting the job I am still at after 5 years, remodeling our first home, and finding a new church. It is hard to believe it has been 5 years, but then again it seems like a long time ago as well.
Praying your 26th year will be better than every other year!

Mad said...

Let's see.

At 25 I met the MadDad.

At 25 I lost something that most people lose far earlier in life. True. This happened before I met MadDad, btw.

Now I have said FAR TOO MUCH, but only because I love you.

Kristin said...

I LOVED 25. Let's see, a few weeks after my 25th birthday my ex and I finally filed for divorce (we'd been separated for months, though).

Just over a month after 25 I met Jason. (But as you've been with Josh your whole life you DO NOT want to hear all I packed into the time between my 25th b-day and meeting Jason). 25 is the year I met and fell in love with my LOML. We got engaged, married in Hawaii, and pregnant with Easton all before I turned 26.

I started out 25 living with my mother again, moved in with Jason unofficially to his townhouse, then his apartment.

I was working L&D at the hospital the whole time.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Hmm...The year was 1990. Full of transitions. I was back living with my parents after finally giving up on trying to make it with older son's dad. I had met and started dating younger son's dad. He actually lived at my parent's house with me for a few months before we found our own place! Older son turned 5 and started school. He also learned to ride a two wheeler bicycle. Odd how that stuck in my mind :-) The music? Madonna and Tom Petty and U2 flood back to me. Oh - and Milli Vanilli!
I know it was an age I wanted to be. I thought it signaled real maturity for some reason! I know it was also the year I started being more awake and aware and connected, though it was spotty at best and did not fully happen for many more years - which is when I ended up leaving younger son's dad. But THAT is another decade to reflect upon ;-)

Julie said...

Gosh, 25 was an awesome year. I was living in D.C. working at the Shakespeare Theatre. Going out late every night with friends. Most of my friends were gay men, of course I worked in theatre. I was desperately in love with a guy in a punk rock band called New Wet Kojak and would see him play every chance I got. The year was 1994. Bill Clinton was president, I had just gotten my first email account, and it was the year of the OJ Simpson murder trial.

Julie said...

Happy birthday!

Liv said...

i was pregnant with my first child this time just after my 25th birthday. it was as hot as hell in middle GA. my husband was changing jobs, we were slowly settling into our new house. i was almost as big as said house. it was an okay time. i don't think i'd do my 20s again, though.

Bea said...

When I turned 25 I was midway through my first year of my Ph.D. (which eventually took five years to finish). My husband was cheating on me, but I didn't know it - all I knew was that he was angry at me all the time and I didn't know why. I was hanging out with friends who cared a lot about clothes. They were fun, but it was stressful, and I seemed to spend most of my time feeling like I was wearing the wrong thing. It was kind of a relief with those friends moved away.

moplans said...

The year I turned 25 I graduated from Teacher's college, worked two jobs over the summer, moved in with the banker in august, started teaching in september and got married in april. Twentyfive was a great year for me. Hoping yours is even better!

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Rebecca said...

25 was a great year for me. Just around my 25th birthday I learned via ultrasound that the baby I was carrying was a girl - yippie! That was the year I started graduate school and a new job I loved after being a teacher in an urban high school, which I didn't love so much. My oldest daughter was born mid-way through my 26th year. And then I won the lottery - just kidding. Happy birthday!

kittenpie said...

I turned 25 six months after I married Misterpie, while I was in my first year of library school. I loved being in library school. I met people just like me, learned interesting things, and was on the way to the career I had wanted. I have often said that library school was like the mother ship had come for me, so it was a great two years full of friends and way too much liquor and fun. (Librarians are actually a crazy bunch to let loose with, believe it or not!)

Girlplustwo said...

I cried my eyes out at 25. i was in the mountains and had never felt so old.

clearly looking back i was a huge dork.

Anonymous said...

I met the love of my life at 25 and spent most of that year swooning over the man I eventually married. 25 Rocked!

Betsy, short for Elizabeth, formally known as Esther said...

I was still in college, when most of my high school class mates had moved onto grad school.
I got engaged
I spent 6 weeks that summer at field camp, in Idaho and Montana. I can't tell you how absolutely awesome it was!

jeanie said...

I can't remember my 25th - but I remember clearly my sister's.

I had flown out to the small country town where she lived as her friends were organising a surprise party for her.

She was surprised - but she was also very sick at the time (neurological) and so spent the entire party lying in the middle of it (vertigo was bad) and we all took turns lying beside her and having fun.

crazymumma said...

Twenty Five was a very busy busy very confusing year.

If I remember correctly I was thrashing around the city trying to be an artist, waitressing in a jazz club and I was just about to break up with my boyfriend for all the wrong reasons. (lust for another dontcha know)

I lived on the fifth floor of an amazing apartment building in the gay district and I was as free as a bird.

My dad died, I had a beautiful purple tshirt with a fringe at the bottom (it just came to me in a flash), and I was very thin.

Happy Birthday Kyla, may this year bring you great joy.

InTheFastLane said...

That seems so long ago...it was only 9 years :) I was in my first year of marriage, my oldest was 5, I had just given birth to my now middle child, and had just completed my first year living in Indiana. I coached cross country in the afternoons and was a stay at home mom the rest of the time.

Amy Y said...

When I was 25, I was married with one child and another on the way. We lived in Middletown, MD, a tiny city just an hour away from Washington DC. I was completely immersed in toddlerhood and loving every second of it. My husband got medically discharged from the Army just as the Iraq war was starting... I was happy to have him with me rather than about to be deployed but faced with unemployment, no insurance and a new baby on the way, was also terrified. It was mostly a good year!

Woman in a Window said...

25...I was in Taiwan and China was firing "empty" missiles at Taiwan to discourage the first democratic election. I was not really convinced by the "empty". They were landing 25 miles from where I was. Then there was an earthquake. Concrete moved in ripples. I took it as a sign and got the heck out. I came home to party and live lightly. I walked out of my friend's house (around the corner from where I live now) with a beer in one hand and a package of hotdogs in the other. There were two American guys there I didn't know. Seven months later...now 26, I married one of those Americans. Still happy...all these years later!

motherbumper said...

Twenty-five? um... don't remember so I guess I was having fun. I know I was working three jobs and had an active social life. Here's something, I finally got around to getting my driver's license that year.

Mimi said...

Kyla, I wrote you a big long story about 25, and Blogger ate it. The summary: skinny, goth, lotta piercings, started PhD, hung out with Mad, lived in snowy Edmonton with cranky fine dining chef who wore the same size jeans as me (28). Yeesh.

(Happy Birthday!)

flutter said...

HBD!! I met the love of my life at 25

Anonymous said...

At twenty-five I was just back from Germany and beginning a doctoral program in history. I was married and my husband was spending the year finishing up some research in Europe before joining me back home. No kids in sight.

Just Me said...

Neat idea...

Twenty five was my most memorable year. I graduated with my master's one month prior and moved hundreds of miles away. I lived with my mom for a few weeks and when I got my first grown-up job moved again to an apartment.

The next months were consumed with learning to do my job. I constantly was mistaken for a young teen, making it hard to be in a supervisory capacity. I took my national boards for occupational therapists (by hand, something no longer done), and 6 weeks later got the legendary big envelope with my license.

During those months I also started to struggle with worsening mental health issues. I was having frequent panic attacks, horrible anxiety, and worsening depression. It did not take long to begin the path that led to being diagnosed with bipolar at 26 1/2.

When I look back, that year is the year my life changed in so very many ways. I'd known it would be a year of change, what with licensure and a planned move, but I had no clue how much it would change.

~aj~ said...

What a neat idea. I love reading everyone's comments.

My 25th year started off with me being 3 months along in my first pregnancy.

I quit my first job so I could be a SAHM.

I gave birth to Adam and in the months afterwards learned the real meaning of sleep deprivation.

It had its ups and downs, but overall was a wonderful year for me.

S said...

25. Interesting you should ask... I met my now-husband about six weeks before my 25th birthday. I started a PhD program at the same time. It was a momentous year.

Bon said...

i think 25 was the year i realized that i was just going to keep on getting older, and i'd better get a life to go with all that age. :)

i got married...not such a great idea...and started my M.A....which proved more rewarding and equally a valuable learning experience in the long run...and really started getting to know who i was.

i think you're miles ahead of me in many ways. hope it's a fabulous year. happy belated, Kyla.

Run ANC said...

Dude, you're 25?? Crap, I'm old.

Lessee, I did the show in which I met Mr Earth and we started dating. It was a VERY good year. In all respects..

mamatulip said...

What a cool idea.

25 was a hard year for me. My mum had just died - like, JUST. That was, without a doubt, the loneliest birthday I've ever had. BUT - that was also the year I discovered I was pregnant with Julia, so it was also a very very good year for me. There was a balance there.

Janet said...

It was August 22, 1996, I was a fairly new graduate from university and working at an advertising agency.

And I was getting married in two days.

My birthday was a non-event, that year, for obvious reasons. I spent the day getting tables set up and beautified in an big outdoor tent on my in-laws country property. I think we might have cracked a beer to toast my birthday, at some point.

25 was a good year for me. I got married, changed jobs and generally enjoyed myself. I hope it's fabulous for you, too!

Sheila @ Dr Cason.org said...

When I turned twenty five I was living in Southern California and had just returned from a summer traveling to Australia, Fiji and New Zealand.

It was on a long bus ride in New Zealand that I decided to take that leap and change my major to pre-med. I knew that I'd be 31 when I graduated from medical School but I figured I'd be 31 anyway.

So in the twenty fifth year I was studying like mad and dreaming of being a doctor.

Julie Pippert said...

At 25...

I was newly married.

I panicked when I turned 25, afraid I was going to freak the eff out like my husband and lots of friends had. FTR, I did not. I saved that for 30, whereupon I spent a whole week acting like a lunatic.

My body, however, did not keep up with the mind. It was the first year I felt a slowing down. After a night of wild, all night partying on a work night, I woke the next day and thought, "I am getting too old for this crap."

At 25, I finally had the courage to, for the first time, say goodbye to some people who I was better off without.

At 25, I said goodbye to some people it seemed I couldn't carry with me into adulthood.

At 25, we decided we were getting to be grown-ups and might need to buy a house. We didn't, FTR, not for another decade. And, FTR, we sort of regret it (that we bought, not that we delayed).

At 25, I finally had a job that paid an actual living income.

I wish at 25 I'd realized I didn't need to be *such* a grown-up yet because, well, frankly, in retrospect it's still so much a part of youth, no matter how much grown-up responsibility you have. So by that I mean I wish like crazy I'd spent more time at 25 listening and less showing off what a Big Girl I was.

HAPPY 25 YOU SEXY YOUNG THING YOU! WISE YOU! LISTENING YOU!

sheree said...

I am in my 25th year right now and so far, it's been pretty rad!

I am sure yours will be too ;)

Christine said...

Man, I am not even a year older than you so 25 was not so different from my today. I graduated law school, got my first "real job" as a judicial clerk, passed my bar exams, and got engaged (my very own power gem!) a month before my own birthday.

It was a full year, to say the least.

Junie's Blog said...

Happy Belated Birthday Kyla! I'm so like you! I love to hear people's stories I can sit and ask questions and listen for hours . . . hmmmmm what year was 25 again?? lol Oh yeah 1998. Hmmm that was a pretty good year. I graduated from teacher's college, got a job and started making some real money for a change! That was a huge life changing experience. I literally moved over 1000 kms a way to a small remote flyin community which can be sometime hostile to certain newcomers. Best decision of my life! I eventually met my future dh and well the rest is history!

Lori at Spinning Yellow said...

Am very behind here... Happy Birthday, first of all! 25 for me was so full of angst! I thought I'd never get married or have children and was destined to a life spent in a soulless corporate job. I had a complete "quarter-life crisis". Shortly there after I started making changes, realizing that life didn't end at 25 (for crying out loud!). Wish I could tell that 25 year old self of mine that things would work out just fine, I could have enjoyed life more. Now, at 40, I get it.

carrie said...

I was giving birth to Wyatt when I was 25 - and wrangling McRae underfoot.

It's all a blur now. :)

painted maypole said...

when i turned 25 i had been married 3 years and had just moved to Los Angeles. I was teaching drama camp during the day, performing Shakespeare and Shaw on the weekends, and training to be an SAT tutor. Sleep wasn't happening much, but ultimately, it was a very good time. (except that SAT tutoring thing. That sucked)