I have learned that age does not come in numbers. It only is determined by the strength of your own true character, the untouchable steadfastness of your will, the soundness of your decisions, the compassion of your heart and the goodness of your soul.

Age brings out the sweetness of wine, the strength of its spirit and its palatability to the tongue. It tests the resiliency of bamboos and the tallest of sycamore trees. It appreciates the hurdles of Father Time and surpasses them with a sweet smile.

Age is by mere fact an attitude, a lifestyle.

-I wrote this sometime after my 25th birthday, realizing that there are many things that might define our coming of age but that there are certain things that hold true as we grow in our years of existence and in the hope that our wisdom had somewhat grown parallel to our experience.