29

I thought I'd write a little rhyme
about what it means to be 29,
granted I haven't got there yet,
if we want to be technical about it...
And all I see
is positivity
and countless possibilities
and all the growth that my twenties
have quite kindly afforded me:

I know what I am
and I know what I'm not,
I know what I lack
and I know what I've got,
I know what I want
and I know where I've been,
and the love and the pain and the tears that I've seen,
and the fence, and the dirt and the grass that's as green
as you expect and hope and want it to be.

So if I could go back to 20 year old me
I'd have words of advice for that silly baby
like 'don't take yourself so seriously'
and 'let yourself be just who you want to be'.
But in a way I'm glad I didn't
because I prefer my future hidden -
not that I have a time machine
or anything, but you know what I mean -
although, sorry guys, but SPOILER ALERT
it kinda involves getting burnt
on the BBQ of love
and all that stuff.
But it's all worth it in the end:
this love, this beer and all my friends...

So let me conclude
this little muse
with a little interlude
of what the past few years have enabled me
to do, to see and to achieve.
(A fitting moment to interject,
that the best is yet to come, I bet!)

I made best friends,
loved all the wrong men,
I found love
then lost it again.
I taught the youth of County Durham
then taught the Polish British custom.
I fell in love in the Krakow renek,
the best 6 months, and I'll never forget it -
the crack of my heart, and the weight of the pain,
waving my lover goodbye on a Silesian train.
And the strangers I met on the seat of a plane,
and dancing in the treetops in Australian rain,
and the countless pairs of ridiculous shoes,
and that time I asked McFly to sign my boobs...

I met the vampire from my teenage dream,
and the boy that refused to give up on me,
but ultimately snapped my heart in two,
because sometimes that's what good guys do.
Standing on stage in the Royal Albert Hall,
well, a function room, but I barely care at all,
and becoming obsessed with the man who wrote 'Kiss',
but he was wrong because nothing compares to this:

reflecting on the past 9 years in such good company,
standing firm on the knowledge that God loves me,
being so thankful for every second in His presence,
so precious,
what a present,
that I could never repay,
so all I can say
is thank You
and thank you
for the gift of today,
right now on my almost birthday.