On growing up

As the saying goes, "We all gotta grow up sometime." Everyone has heard this before, most likely from our parents, and as the years have gone by, I have changed my opinion about it multiple times. As of right now, I believe that even though you may get older every year, you never truly have to grow up- age is simply a number.

Last night, my friend Rohit and I had dinner at my cousins Lea and Steve's house with a couple of their friends. They kept calling themselves "old," but that might have been because we were obviously a little younger. Being a college student, the night felt like a taste of what the future will be like (something to definitely look forward to). A typical meal in the Westwood apartments among my friends and I usually consists of take-out of some kind, everyone either sitting at a table or on a couch or a bed, and wildly inappropriate conversation mixed with a number of obnoxious noises; I wouldn't have it any other way. It's always fun and quite entertaining, but last night was such a different, mature experience and was really enjoyable.

Let me first say that Lea and Steve can cook up a storm; the food was awesome- you can't beat a home-cooked meal. Steve made homemade dinner rolls and he smoked ribs, sausages, and chicken wings, and Lea made so many great side dishes: roasted potatoes and fennel, swiss chard (which I've never had before), and butternut squash puree. With dinner, we drank good Japanese beer (Asahi) and their friend brought these amazing cream puffs for dessert.

If you know me well enough, you'll know that I'm a total foodie so this meal made me super happy. To make the night even better, there was a lot of good conversation at the table. It's always nice to have a quality conversation with people you haven't met before. We talked about many different things that don't usually come up at the dinners I've been to, and there was also a lot of laughter- someone laughed so hard, they started to tear up. I gotta say, I'm excited for more experiences like this.

Like I mentioned earlier, getting older and growing up are very different. I understand that most of us become more mature as we get older, and as our priorities change, we find ourselves in different places than years before, developing new views and opinions on life. However, I think it's so important to remember how to be a kid, have fun, and enjoy yourself (be yourself). If you can't, people aren't going to want to come to your dinner parties.

Thanks again, Lea and Steve, for a great night!