Quarter of a Century

It was a day like any other really, the only plans were to watch conference and maybe have dinner and dessert later that evening. That's not usually how life changing days start, but generally speaking...my life's not that usual. The only difference about this day than any other was it was my birthday, and not just any birthday but my 25th birthday.
Everyone always has their own milestone birthdays, mine have been something like...age 8...baptism...age 12...start of teenagedom...16 freedom to drive...18 ability to vote...and 21 the full rights to adulthood. Then those milestones start to wane and it doesn't seem like there are any until you start reaching your decades...30, 40, 50, etc...Well there is a hidden milestone tucked right in the middle that is often forgotten. The age 25. Exactly a quarter of a century old. Now I don't really know why it has much significance but it should be some cause of celebration.

I was eating breakfast at a friends house when discussion of my birthday came up. All birthdays should be celebrated of course but this was something special. In order to make it special we decided I needed to do 25 things I've never done before. We started small. I ate bacon with knives (used like chopsticks), arm wrestled an Ecuadorian and won (I cheated...but it was my birthday.), so on and so forth...but these trivial matters just didn't seem good enough to commemorate my 25th birthday. I needed ideas. 300 text messages later, I had a huge list of ideas from everyone I knew...I would have to say the two most common were...Get Married...and...STREAK. Well, getting married would be rather difficult since there wasn't even a rumor of a boy who might like me, let alone a marriage proposal. So that left me with streaking. Everyone who mentioned it only said it as a joke because I'm rather conservative and won't even wear a bikini, but little did they know I have a soft spot for challenges...if you can even call it a soft spot...it's more like an appetite that can never be satisfied.

It would have been fitting to either do this particular activity first to head the list of things to be done, or last as a crowning event, but I wasn't smart enough to plan it through and it got tossed somewhere in the middle. As I started my quest to do these 25 things, streaking was always in the back of my mind. It was a silly notion at first, a joke not to be taken seriously, but as I gave it more thought, it was something no one expected me to do and therefore it couldn't be left undone.

I mentioned it jokingly to my roommate, and quite excitedly said she would do it with me. Strangely, I was only half surprised at her enthusiasm, and I guess the other half kind of expected her to do just that. We made the plans and proceeded on with our night as if there was nothing to it. We were watching a movie and the time had come to do our obscure deed. I looked at her and ask if she was ready. She gave me a confused look, and I watched the realization take place on her face. She panicked slightly and thought about the journey we were about to embark. She ran outside, checked the weather and the traffic. The weather was warm and the streets were abandoned as they should be in a little town at 2 am. She came back and simply said "give me a minute" as she ran into her room. I raced into mine and stripped down. I grabbed my robed as a basic covering. She came out in a thin sarong wrapped tightly around her. We were quite certain that no one would see us, but there was still that fear. If we were going to do this, we couldn't be recognized. I own a helmet with a huge Afro wig on top, with that and sunglasses, no one could even tell what nationality I was. My roommate scrounged up an old hat and we both had sunglasses that covered half our face. We felt anonymous, safe.

We grabbed our skateboards and headed down the street. We chose carefully, one that had no traffic of any sort. The closest one also happened to be the one all of the faculty at BYUH lived on...perfect. We came to the beginning of the street, looked at each other, and with no more words exchanged, we took off our simple coverings and started our journey. I felt the smooth road under my bare feet and the cool wind around my bare body. I couldn't help but giggle at the reality of what we were doing. It was liberating and exciting. I felt free in my nudity. We approached the end of the street and in the last few feet we covered quickly, still on our skateboards, still on the abandoned street. WE DID IT! One full block completely exposed! We headed home. We were tempted once again to feel that cool breeze on this new street, but that quickly vanished as we saw a car door open and a young man, slowly meandering toward his house. We passed him, and what a strange pair we must have looked. We got home and couldn't contain our laughter from what we had accomplished and also from what we avoided.
It was an adventure that night. Definitely not the first, and by no means will it be the last...