Happy birthday to me!

Today is my birthday.  I'm 26.  I realise that 26 isn't old, as such, but I am now closer to 30 than I am to 20.  I'm a Proper Grown Up.

Or am I?  Yes, I have a full time job, a council tax bill and a steady live-in boyfriend, but I also still love kids' films and fairy cakes and laughing at stuff that's really silly.  I read somewhere that your twenties are supposed to be your selfish years, when you can have fun and do whatever you want without having to worry about responsibilities.  It's your chance to make some great memories to look back on when, to quote a slightly more grown-up friend of mine, "you have kids and your social life dies".

Doesn't that put us under pressure? Does it mean we should be making the most of our opportunity to go out clubbing and drinking and being irresponsible and debauched?  I did all that when I was a student, and I'm tired of it.  I've graduated from noisy clubs to bars where I can chat with friends, from Lambrini to gin and tonic.  And sometimes, shock horror, I don't even want to go out.  Sometimes, I want to watch a film at home, on the sofa, in my pjs.  Youth, as they say, is wasted on the young.

Your mid-twenties are a strange time.  In my case, I've grown out of the going-out-and-getting-wasted-every-weekend thing, but I'm not at the marriage-and-kids stage just yet.  What happens in between?

The answer is, it's up to you.  Personally, I'm using this time to focus on me (which might be selfish, but as I said, that's what these years are for).  I'm looking after myself with exercise and eating (reasonably) well, I'm spending time with friends, I'm having quality time with my boyfriend, I'm reading as much as I can - I'm just doing things that make me happy.  That's what I think the in-between years - and, I guess, life - is all about.