Turning 25

Best. Birthday. Ever. That is the only way to describe 5th December 2012.

Having suffered through a panic attack about one week before my birthday this year (panic about turning 25, and crossing over to the 'adult' list from the 'young adult' one), my birthday was by far the most awesome, wonderful birthday I have ever had. The strange part being I celebrated it with only 3 people (Nutties and two school-time best friends), zero internet connectivity, no phone in my hand, total disconnect from the world!

Birthday was welcomed in our cocktail-dresses-and-related-bling glory at 12.00 AM, at the Burj Al Arab, with a world class jazz pianist playing me the birthday song while random model-like people smiled and cheered me on to make a wish. Such a wonderful feeling! One nice British lady even told me, it was so cool that I was celebrating my birthday here 'at such a young age!'. Ah. What a nice thing to hear when you are in reality turning old. :D

The day went on to be celebrated with loads of shopping at the Dubai Mall, and ended with being on top of the Burj Khalifa, with a spectacular view. I was amazed at what those people have managed to create, how much effort it must have taken to build the tallest building in the world! Wow! That followed by the beautiful, goosebump-inducing, mesmerizing fountain show. To the tunes of 'Time To Say Goodbye' in the beautiful velvet voice of Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. I swear I cried happy tears a little. :)

Check more pics here

And how successful was I with my 25 before 25?

I think I did okay, atleast I did not completely suck at it. The things I did not manage to accomplish were some of the less important ones on the list, so I am pretty satisfied overall. Besides, some of the unaccomplished things on the list, are those who no longer are on my life list at this juncture anymore. For example, getting that high GMAT score, the timelines for that have moved indefinitely since I am not sure I want a MBA anymore at all! And the ballroom dance class - hip hop has always been my love. Try as hard as I may, I just feel supremely awkward doing the salsa or the likes. So that went out of the window, though I did end up Zumba-ing my ass off. Not sure if anyone counts that as dance though! :P

All in all, like Nutties tells me, I think I should give myself a little more credit than I usually do. How many 25 year old's have an apartment that they can call their own (albeit ALL my salary goes for the house loan...), a business that looks pretty promising right now, have been published.... and get to have THAT awesome a quarter century birthday? :D ..Definitely not the likes of someone like me who started with virtually nothing. Total rags to somewhat-riches. Sounds so cool when I put it like that. :D

- Annie.

P.S: I got a new camera, finally! Which is also why I am pretty much bankrupt at this point.. :P

___________________________________________________________

Now Playing: Time to say goodbye | Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman