It’s easy to get lost in the mix of seeing, being seen, and “finding ourselves” or whatever. But I realized on Saturday night, while I was staying home and see/seeing exactly no one, what’s actually important.

I’ll backtrack slightly. My birthday is next weekend – Friday to be exact. Which is, counter-intuitively, a source of stress. Where do I go? With who? My parents asked me last weekend if I wanted to have dinner Friday and I said no almost instinctively. On my 23rd birthday, why would I spend my birthday with my parents? Especially when it falls on a Friday. #HappyHour – right?!

The week passed. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then Saturday I was thinking about birthday plans. Why is spending my Friday birthday at age 23 with my parents not cool? There are very, very few moments in my life that I’ve ever regretted spending time with my parents.

So today I called up my mom and dad and asked them if they still were free Friday to celebrate my birthday with me. And as much as I’m excited for whatever my friends and I cook up for the weekend ahead, the plans I’m the most excited for right now are the ones I just made for after work on Friday. And the burger I plan on ordering won’t be half bad either.

Maybe I really am growing up.