Part.1 When I was born…
Exactly 28 years ago, on the day I was born, started the Romanian Revolution in the city called Timisoara, the city I currently live in today. There is actually a boulevard in Timisoara with the name of my Birth date : “16 December 1989”.
My mother said some women from the hospital that gave birth in the same day, named their little girls “Victoria”, a symbol for victory, but my mom stuck with “Laura” , a name which I enjoy very much, and has a similar meaning. The name Laura is the feminized form of laurus, Latin for “bay laurel plant”, which in the Greco-Roman era was used as a symbol of victory, honor or fame.
An other interesting fact is that , although I was born in Vaslui, a city in the Eastern Part of Romania , I ended up living in Timisoara, in Timis county, which is in the western part of Romania, traveling 15 hours by train. Luckily now there are low cost flights to connect the 2 areas.
When I was little and met people in their 20s , I saw them like big adults, and wandered how will I feel when I turn 20. To my surprise, although I am 28 now, I still feel too young, and see the 50 years olds as adults. I even noticed that after you turn 20 you loose completely the track of your age. I turned 28 today, but I was positive all year that I already had 28, instead of 27. “Am I 27 or 28? or 29? ..mehh..who cares?”
I asked my friends, “do I look older?” , and they say actually I’m starting to look age appropriate, because in my 20s I looked like a 30 year old, so now my look starts to match my age. Haha
Part 2. Birthdays are a smack on the face from life.
Now here is a little test for you. I want you to think and analyze how do you feel on your birthday?
1) If you feel happy and grateful and want to celebrate, that means you are on the right path in life, and keep doing what you are doing.
2) If you feel sad, depressed or old, then that’s a warning for you that you are not on the right path, and you must take action!
The big issue , when you get older, is that you start to question more and more your life purpose.
For the first 25 years or so, you are distracted by school, relationships, starting a job, earning more money, becoming independent and so on.
If you chose to have children, they will occupy a large part of your life and distract you a lot from your own self.
After you accomplish most of your items on the list, indulge into the 9 to 5 life, after you marry, after you settle in a house, after your kids are off on their own, you start to ask yourself ” What now??”
As the years pass, and no answer is showing up to you, each birthday is a sad reminder that you should hurry to do something, that you may end up with regrets, that you postponed already all of those things.
All I can say is that you need to take action, you need to make some changes, even if it’s something small, like waking up half hour earlier than usual. Do something to break the routine! You can also find some insightful information in some of my previous posts : What’s the point? and Suicidal Thoughts.
I also felt today to make a dance video to express all of these thoughts, using a song with powerful lyrics : “we’re not getting any younger, scream, shout, let it all out!”
Regarding my personal feelings for my birthday, I feel very grateful because I created this website and I am able to write these posts, because I am still able to dance and share that with you, that I’m gaining more and more subscribers on my DIY channel Fluffy Hedgehog, that I finally was able to create an online store with all of my handmade goods that were sitting in boxes for a lot of time , and that I managed to create a store on Etsy with all my artwork in a digital form.
Much love to you all!
Laura Dogariu 