WHAT DID YOU ACHIEVE ON YOUR TWENTY FIRST?

I was just starting my 2nd year of Law School. Eh, so, not so much.

What's so special re the 21st? Seriously. Why not celebrate the 31st or 41st or 51st as well as that?

Thirdeye - most of us here (except Jespah) probably can't even remember our 21st.

I don't remember my 21st birthday, but I had recently returned from being a bum in Europe. I already graduated college, had just found an apartment in NYC, started a real job, and was working on building a good social life with people I am still friends with to this day . The one thing I did not have was money. It made me very creative and thrifty.

When I was very young I wanted to be a child protegee in art. Now that I am older I'm glad it didn't happen. Most protegees do not have as much success as they grow older. The novelty wears off or the talent becomes more average. Most people do their best work in their middle or later years. TTE, you have a lot of time to produce your book (s). Enjoy it.

As to accomplishing things I dreamed about - yes, but not until I was in my mid-30's. I always felt the timing was perfect.

A smallpox vaccination.

I was as a conscript in the navy, we went to France, a smallpox vacination was obligatory for in those days in foreign countries, my father didn't allow this operations [what it legally was with adults].
And since I was the petty officer on watch before going to the hospital, I even didn't have a drink.

Five years later, in 1975, the twenty first birthday lost its significance here: 18 is now that date ...

I was in the 2nd or 3rd year of university, just got accepted to Bard College for an exchange program and was working at the Slovak parliament as an interpreter / project assistant. Volunteering in a human rights group. I don't think I had dreams about 21. I have Big Plans for 33 though.

When I was 21, I was in college. A fellow student had an idea for a musical. He
was a total maniac and had no conception of what was practical or even possible.
He prevailed upon me to write the book and direct. He got two others to
compose music and lyrics. He somehow got a budget from the administration
and we pulled it off. To this day it is one of my happiest memories, though it
damn near drove me crazy at the time.

Like the Witch, I don't remember my 21st birthday.

There was nothing special about 21 except that I could legally buy alcohol.

But being legal never stopped me anyway, so 21 was uneventful.

And I just can't wait to be 30's....

I too cannot remember my 21st birthday. All I know, is that I was taking care of my infant son, and attempting to keep together a horrible marriage, which eventually disbanded.

Jes- The only birthday that was "special" to me was not actually ON my birthday, but was the week before my 40th. I was a complete and utter lunatic. I was sure that everything was going downhill, and that my life was over.

The day of my birthday came and went, uneventfully. I have never had problems with birthdays since, except for the fact that I cannot believe that I have accumulated so many of them!

I was on my own for the first time in my life - on a Navy destroyer, halfway to Hawaii. Don't recall doing anything special. Was miffed that an eighteen year old in Hawaii had the same rights as a twenty one year old. At least they could drink beer legally.

i didnt ******* die.

Similar... I was never a drinker but I'd go into bars regularly from when I was 15 or so for music. Knew how to not get carded.

On my 21st birthday, went out to a bar with friends, had the happy realization that I didn't have to use any special methods, relaxed, got carded, happily dug into my purse... and realized I didn't have my ID.

The only time I was thrown out of a bar was when I was actually legal.

(I went home, got the damn ID, and came back, and at least had the satisfaction of proving it...)

I'm fascinated with your name:

Noun 1. third eye - a sensory structure capable of light reception located on the dorsal side of the diencephalon in various reptiles

pineal eye

sense organ, sensory receptor, receptor - an organ having nerve endings (in the skin or viscera or eye or ear or nose or mouth) that respond to stimulation

betweenbrain, diencephalon, interbrain, thalmencephalon - the posterior division of the forebrain; connects the cerebral hemispheres with the mesencephalon

Oh no. Don't piss off one decade waiting for another. Enjoy them ALL. You're legal now. An adult. That's a wonderful thing. Be happy.

What are you, some kind of child genius? You finish high school in 9 weeks like Doogie Howser?

I was starting my final year of college. Had achieved squat.

Uh, yes. Kinda.

I skipped second grade, plus my birthday is in the Autumn so I was younger than almost everyone in my class anyway. I started Law School, I was still 20.

And actually -- my error -- it was first year, not second when I was 21, though I started second year before my 22nd birthday.

I was starting my fifth year of college - I had changed majors a lot and had a zillion credit hours by the time I finished up my last major.. plus I worked almost full time so I didn't always take the largest possible units per semester.

Accomplishment? I fell in love for the first time - not perhaps an achievement, but I began to feel like a grown up woman.