I cannot believe that I am already 20 years of age. I have been living two decades of my life already. My childhood years are done and I don't want my teenage years to disappear yet. I am not ready to become a fully matured person. Yesterday I was 17, 18, 19 then now 20!

I used to hear that when you are young, do not worry about money yet because once you grow up you will. As I am growing, I have realized how the lives of older people rotates in working and paying to survive life. I said it's the reality of life.

The people who have enjoyed their teenage life are not missing anything. When I entered college, everyone thought nothing about but study and work whereas when we were in high school we all do nothing but have fun in the school. We are slowly detaching from the young and happy years.

I do not like to treat the 20th as a label that I am not gonna enjoy my life. I am just worried about what the society might expect for me to behave as I am in the stage of my life where I am studying to have a professional job one day.

How I celebrated my birthday

To make this birthday celebration of mine memorable and extra special, I decided to have a contest and this is something I have never done before. On that day of mine, I didn't expect to see more creative entries with a lot of my photos edited anywhere. It is so fun and somewhat heart touching inside. Seeing everyone greeting and participating me makes my 20th birthday a huge welcome. I already have the winners and I will explain why they won.

The first prize goes to my cousin because I have never expected that she will sing one of my favorite songs from my favorite singer Avril Lavigne. She sang the song When You're Gone by Avril Lavigne and that song is one of the most emotional songs from the singer. I really didn't expect it. Listening to the intro of the music made my heart soft and I can feel my tears slowly falling. I appreciate what my cousin did for me, she got my spirit from the contest.

The second prize goes to my college classmate because I didn't expect she will make two separate videos. The first one is a mañanita song or a serenading song to wake and greet the birthday celebrant at sleep. The another video is for the song I requested which is a Christian song. I really feel heart-warming by what she did for me.

The third prize goes to my other college classmate because she really exerted effort in editing my pictures in her video. She did a lot of TikTok dance and put it all in one video, she really created all of those for me and put a lot of spies to it.

I am really overwhelmed by the contest I made, I thought no one will participate in it and I should just stop it because I'm just wasting my energy but I was wrong. Everyone made me feel that I am the most special person in this world and I will never forget to thank them. I have added something special for the winners above and that is the tote bag. I am going to give them a tote bag as a gratitude for the amazing and unforgettable video performance they dedicated to me. I even feel that it is not enough to thank them because there's no words to express how I am surprised and amused.

I am very happy that I made my 20th year something special and I have shared my blessings to other. I have realized that we shouldn't hear good words when we're dead, it should be when we were still alive and that is why birthdays should be celebrated because it is the time where you are going to feel the special you. Life is very short and we should not dare to be scared to try new things. This contest is a big thing I never did and I'm looking forward to do it again.

March 1, 2022