Twenty is the new twelve, right?

 

My Human Development class this year spent a decent amount of time discussing the fairly recent concept of Emerging Adulthood. As children grow up and pursue higher education, they are delaying their development into full blown adults by allowing themselves more time for identity discovery. As my professor informed us about this fascinating new life stage, he reminded us that we are all in the throes of this very stage of development. And BANG... it hit me. I am approaching that scary, intimidating period of my life called adulthood. The very thought of it made me want to fly back to Neverneverland and never ever leave!

 

As it turns out, I wasn't the only one of my friends who felt the pressure of adulthood. My best friend recently turned 20 (yep, she kissed those teenage years goodbye, whether or not she was ready to leave them). Though I wished her Happy Birthday (via text, facebook and of course, the classic hallmark card), she still expressed a hint of sadness over the feeling of.. well... feeling OLD.

 

With May being the month of birthdays amongst my friends, I've had a lot of time to think about turning 20 (though, thankfully I still have more than two months to fully accept it). I told my mom that I was concerned and she said, "What?! Your twenties are great! I just turned 50!" So I guess when you put it into perspective, the twenties aren't so bad. You're young, adventurous and you bring that youth and excitement into the adult world. It's not adulthood that changes you, it's your youthful perspective that changes modern adulthood. So, let us emerge, strong, proud, and maybe a little awkward from our teenage years and embrace being adults.

 



 

As I mentioned, my best friend turned 20 a few days ago. And when I say best friend, I mean it. We bonded over crayons in kindergarten and have been inseparable ever since. I was worried that as we went off to college, we would begin to grow apart, finding different interests, different lives. Luckily, though we have found different interests, we have lots of similarities to bind us together. We both have found solace in religion, we love to play Frisbee and we even enjoy snacking on cereal. Another thing we both love is the classic peanut butter and chocolate combination. To remind her of our past and future friendship, I decided to bake some decadent peanut butter and chocolate cake balls for a birthday treat.

 

I didn't realize the cake ball process was so time intensive. I baked the cake, crumbled it, made the icing, mixed the icing and cake, rolled the cake balls and froze them all the day before. 

 Then came the dipping... The chocolate looks so deliciously innocent obediently dripping off that spatula, doesn't it? Well, its totally faking. By the time I was done dipping the cake balls, there was chocolate splattered everywhere. I used about 20 toothpicks trying to coax the chocolate neatly onto the balls. In my attempt to smooth out the chocolate, I added half and half and the whole mixture congealed! Ha, chocolate, innocent, SWEET, ha... LIES!

Luckily, they came out well and I hope my best friend enjoyed them! Peanut butter and chocolate is not only the perfect treat, but the perfect analogy for our friendship. She's sweet and smooth, I'm a little nutty, and, together, we make an awesome pair!