Sweet Sixteenth

Today was definitely not what I had expected my "sweet sixteenth" to be like. 

In fact, it was the complete opposite of what I had expected when I woke up this morning.

Let's just say, it was,...

amazing.

I showed up to tae kwon do really early today just to warm up and get ready for our demo performance today. Although it was freezing cold outside, all of us still worked our butts off just to make sure we got everything down and ready. When we were half way done, one of my friends from tae kwon do showed up late,...but with balloons. LOL He walked out of his car, carrying two gigantic balloons, one labeled 1, and the other, a 6! He carried them over to me and seriously, I was completely touched because just the thought that anyone even bothered to go through the trouble of buying me something made me feel so loved. After that, my best friend showed up to support me today. For the first time ever, she saw the place and people whom I've surrounded myself with for majority of my last 2 years. Just the fact that she was there, completely brightened up my day because it meant SO much to me, like you don't even understand. Seeing her there was just like a confidence booster plus a mood booster all in one. After the belt ceremony, my best friend left and my siblings and I just went over to some of our friend's house to chill for the rest of the day. What ended up happening was, they threw me a "surprise birthday party" kinda thing. Although there were a few mishaps and whatnot, I really did appreciate their time and effort,  every single one of those kids risked their time and effort just to be there with me on my birthday. They even went as far out as buying me a cake and ring pop just to represent my "coming of age" as they had put it. LOL. Just being with them today reminded me of how happy and close we all used to be in the past. Around 6:30 p.m. or so, my mom came to pick us up and we all drove over to pick up my Kati for dinner. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday dinner, surrounded by family and my best friend. Just being surrounded by the people I care for and love made me feel complete and honestly happy.