In the middle of one of the busiest weeks of the semester, I turned 21! It was so much fun celebrating with some of my dearest friends at Belmont. In fact, it turned into an almost week long affair:
Wednesday (my actual birthday): Well, first, at exactly 12:00 I heard an extremely loud, rough knock on my door… followed by another… followed by another. I got up and ran to the door to find about 40 smiling faces of the girls of Wright 4th floor singing Happy Birthday to me and presenting me with a cookie cake! I’ve never been so surprised in my life! It was so much fun and so sweet of all of the girls to do that! I gave them all hugs and thanked them for their sweetness
Then, later that day: My parents live about 30 minutes away and a few of us went to their house and celebrated with birthday cake and some Famous Dave’s BBQ. It was really nice just to relax in the middle of the week and enjoy family (and my dog…)

Friday: After classes were over it was finally the weekend! That night I met with some of my dearest friends from Belmont at Chili’s for dinner. The five boys and four girls (not to mention the the three that couldn’t come) are so special to me and have all made a great impact on my time here at Belmont as well as my life in general. Having them all there to celebrate together like that brought back so many happy memories. It was just wonderful having an evening full of laughter and jokes among good friends. After dinner we went back to my boy friend’s apartment to play “Taboo” (a board game). Even though my team (the girl’s team) lost, we still had a wonderful time!
Saturday: As much as I love my “old” friends at Belmont, I wanted to have a special celebration for the friends I have more recently met, but feel like I have known forever: the Wright/Maddox RA staff. We all headed out to Jackson’s in Hillsboro Village and enjoyed lunch together. After lunch a few of us walked over to the local coffee shop Fido where we enjoyed popsicles and even saw Rachel Lampa!
Then later that night my boyfriend took me out to dinner and we spent the evening walking (one of our favorite pastimes) around some of our favorite places in Nashville. It was a beautiful night and I had such a wonderful time with him. To top the night off he gave me a list, which he framed in a silver frame, “21 Reasons Why Nicole is an Angel”. And yes… I cried! It was so sweet!
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I always love birthdays because I feel like they are more than a marker in time, but a milestone in life. I like to look back every year and see how much life has changed since my last birthday. This year I have no complaints whatsoever. I’m where I know I am supposed to be, I have friends that mean more to me than I ever thought possible, I’m on my way to making a name and career for myself, Jesus loves me and I’m following Him, and I’ve never been so happy.
What more could a birthday girl wish for?