On the day that I enter the last year of my 20s…

I remind myself that there are ways to be old and awesome:

I’m also very, very grateful. I’m grateful for the love I’ve experienced over these years, and the pain, and the boredom (like Eddie Izzard says, you can’t be afraid and bored at the same time). I’m grateful to my family, my colleagues, stereotypical Frenchmen who hold their cigarettes in their long fingers just so, the bureaucrats with an unexpected and angelic gleam in their eyes, the sunrises over strange streets, the laughter on the stairwell, the church bells in the dark, and the winds that change direction unexpectedly at night, ruffling your hair with a paternal hand and moving on.