I Turned 18 in Quarantine

Some of us came into this world at a dark time. 9/11 had just struck our country down. Thank god I was born about half a year later, 18 years ago to this day exactly. Still, I would have dubbed our generation Gen-D (D for depression). We have already gone through a tremendous amount in our lifetimes. Us in Houston have survived two hurricanes, one of them being Harvey during our sophomore year. We grew up in a time that school shootings have become more and more common. These past four years has been a race to the finish line sadly, because you never know if your school will be next. Now that we finally entered the home stretch, suddenly our finish line became very blurry. We face the uncertainty of Corona Virus, or Covid-19. We fear we will not get to see our friends one more time. Walk down the hallways one more time and count down our last seconds of high school. Experience the right of passage that is prom. Play our last matches, games or recitals. Receive our awards and recognition for the tremendous amounts of hard work, tears, and sleepless nights we put into our last four of twelve long years of education. We fear we will not get to walk across that stage at graduation with our best friends and throw our caps in the air like every high school movie we have every seen. Corona has taken so much from us and from me personally it took the celebration of my 18th birthday. I have waited since my freshman year of high school to finally go turn up at the club tonight. Eagerly I have waited, and this past year has been the most excruciating. Turning 18 was supposed to be a highlight of my life because it marks the beginning of adulthood and freedom. No more having to come home at 12 (...or sneak in past 12 lmao sorry mom!) and more options for stupidity in my youth (like getting a lip tattoo). I am grateful that my parents are allowing me to go sit in a parking lot with my tailgate open with my friends as we are 6 feet apart (because ya know social distancing) but I cannot lie this sucks. Like never in the past 18 years would I have imagined that I would spend my birthday like this. At this point I'm going to start taking bets on what will happen when I turn 21? California falls into the ocean? Aliens taking over the earth? I don't know, but it's getting pretty ridiculous how much we have gone through. But all this also reminds me that this is the reason I started my blog. I feel like this next decade is going to be the craziest decade of my life and I want to capture every moment, the good and bad. It’s crazy how fast 18 truly came. It always seemed so far away. And now that I am 18 I just can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that I’ve been on this earth for that long. Happy birthday to me!

Also enjoy these pictures of me in my cute quarantine mask and then some of me crying glitter like the classy adult I am because I couldn't turn up at the club:) See more on my Instagram @eriika.3