this is the first time I will celebrate...

I turn 43 today.

This is the first time I will celebrate my birthday as a different person. I am a different person not because I re-invent myself. Though I have thought about it quite often, I just don't know how and where to start. I am a different person because, I am in a different place, time, and space (whatever that means.)

This is the first time I will celebrate my birthday out of the country I have known all my life. The place where I was born and the place I grew up from.

This is the first time I will celebrate my birthday as a married woman. I just married last year and this is the first time that I woke up with someone on my bed besides my pillows.

This is the first time I will celebrate my birthday with my new family, my husband's. I left my family back home and this is the first time they will celebrate my birthday without me.

This is the first I will celebrate my birthday that I am not thinking of presents, cakes and balloons. And this is the first time, I am not thinking of a birthday wish.

Well, there is always a "first time" for everybody. And yes, this is the first time and the only time I will turn 43 years old. Cheers for me!