Sixteen

We celebrated my niece’s 16th birthday this evening with a family party at my sister’s house. It made me reflect back to the day I turned sixteen.

Sixteen is such a magical age. It’s when you start driving and that brings new freedoms and liberties with it. I guess that’s why they call it your “sweet” sixteen.

For my sixteenth birthday, I received a huge surprise — a car! I had no idea it was coming, and I was completely blown away. It was a classic ’68 Mustang — sweet, indeed.

I took my driving test on my 16th birthday, passed the test, and drove to school for the first time. It was a major milestone in my life. I experienced many other milestones that year including:

• Winning the Student President election by one vote
• Taking first place at state for female quartet
• Traveling to New York for Nationals, singing at the Statue of Liberty
• Taking first place for a female quartet at Nationals (it was the first time one of our singing groups had even placed there)!!
• Starting my first job (gift wrapper and then sales associate at Lord & Taylor’s)
• Graduating (yeah, that’s right…I graduated a year early — it’s a private school thing.)
• My best friend moving to New York with her sister (she eventually realized that there’s no place like TX and came back home)
• Changing churches and attending ALC
• Meeting the man who would eventually become my husband

Ah, those were such great times. Sixteen was truly a sweet year.