My 21st Birthday! +VLOG

As of today, I am officially 21 years old.

I spent the last week or so on vacation with my boyfriend visiting his family down in South Carolina. I had a lot of fun but I forgot to bring my camera charger so I couldn't capture many moments. We stayed there until the 27th and then flew back to CT. Prior to my birthday, I made a reservation at Bodhi Vegetarian down in Chinatown of NYC. 

I originally wanted to have my birthday party in the same location that I had it last year but the restaurant was being pretty difficult so I looked for some vegan alternatives in another area! My good friend Megan drove over 4 hours to come down to my birthday party, which really touched me. 

Me and Megan

This was my birthday outfit! A red dress from Forever21.

Can you tell I'm obsessed with this filter? Vincent looks too cute.

We met up with my friend Jennie at the train station and Charis at Grand Central. The train had some delays so we ended up getting to Grand Central kind of late so we had to New York style speedwalk to get to the restaurant. If you know me, you know that I'm always early for everything, so being late for my own birthday party was pretty anxiety-inducing! But everything ended up alright and as I sat down at the table all my friends began pouring in.

I didn't know this beforehand but the table we were sitting at rotated in the middle so that we can pass dishes around which I thought was really cool. We decided to do more of a dim-sum style than individual meals, which was awesome because you could just move the table around to grab a bite of something else. One of my biggest worries was that my friend groups wouldn't be able to mesh well. This was the first time that my boyfriend was meeting most of my friends, and I knew that there was going to be a language barrier of some sort since I tend to switch between English and Japanese pretty randomly when I'm with my Japanese friends. 

 

To my surprise, things went so well that it made me feel silly for even worrying in the first place. Everyone clicked really easily and there was one point in the party where I just sat back and watched everyone talk to each other.  It was a really awesome moment of pure happiness and comfort.  I feel incredibly blessed to have such amazing friends surrounding me and I have so much positivity towards this year!! In the photos above, my friends acted like paparazzi and took a ton of photos. I couldn't help but smile :)

Jennie x Me

Charis x Me

 Turning 21 almost feels like a New Years celebration.  I wouldn't necessarily say I feel different but I do feel like I have a more focused sense of purpose and direction than I did one year ago.  I feel like my head is clear and my confidence is up. I'm in the springtime of my life and I'm enjoying every second of it!

After we had dinner we went to a local vegan ice cream place and I had the most amazing ice cream I've ever had: cookie crumble strawberry jam. Charis found the place so I don't recall the name, but it's in my video so if you know where this place is I highly recommend that you visit!! It was the best ice cream I've ever had in my life, vegan or otherwise!

shamless ice cream eating

Then, the night finally came to a close as we rode the train back home. Vincent and Megan both stayed over, and they wished me a happy birthday the second the clock struck 12.  A perfect end to a perfect birthday celebration!!