27 candles (or, in my case, types of exotic meat)

This past month, I turned 27 (or as I sometimes prefer to think of it, the 6^th anniversary of my 21^st birthday). And though I had a great time with friends in Nairobi at the world famous Carnivore restaurant, the idea that my mid-twenties are over is startling and a little scary. Actually, the idea that my teens are over is still surprising. 

"Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up..." -Tom Stoppard 

Am I finally growing up? 


Am I getting old?

I don’t feel old (though a slight crinkling at the eyes when I smile is looking suspiciously like crows feet) I don’t act old (though I prefer to be in bed by 10:30 every night, and cannot make it past midnight). My friends aren’t old (though every single one of my girlfriends is either engaged or married). It’s… well, its damn confusing is what it is. Maybe this confusion shouldn’t surprise me. According to a recent study, US research has suggested that, “mental powers start to dwindle at 27 after peaking at 22, marking the start of old age.”    

Meh hey-hey anyone??

Alas, science has spoken… but, everything she has to say isn’t negative… This excerpt is taken from an article that claims that women become sex crazed at age 27. Look out world.

“What often crowds our minds are our biological clocks. By 30 and continuing into our 40s, all we can hear is a faint, imaginary murmur from our anxious tubes: tick-tock, tick-tock. It's this "sound" that, according to new research from the University of Texas-Austin, that drives us to "capitalize on our remaining childbearing years."

In layman's terms, we have sex and lots of it.

And although there is a little Samantha Jones in all of us (maybe a lot for some of us), the study attributes "adventurous bedroom behavior" not to our upbringing or racy TV shows but to low fertility. The study, published in the July edition of Personality and Individual, found women between 27-45 (those in the "low fertility" category) to possess a "heightened sex drive in response to their dwindling fertility," and that these women are "more likely to have frequent sexual fantasies, an active sex life, and a willingness to have casual sex."

Lilian, Myles and I at the world famous "Carnivore". The menu for the evening included ostrich, camel, and ox balls... (among other tasty offerings)

I did a little more internet research about the big two seven. It seems to be a good year to do big things. At age 27:

o   Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. dropped out from his job at General Electric to become a full-time writer.

o   Henry David Thoreau went off for two years to live alone in a cabin at Walden Pond.

o   Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space.

o   Memphis millionaire Frederic W. Smith, whose father built the Greyhound bus system, founded Federal Express.

o   Scottish botanist David Douglas discovered the Douglas fir.

o   Ernest Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises.

o   Boston dentist William Morton pioneered modern anaesthesiology after learning that inhalation of ether will cause a loss of consciousness.

o   Barack Obama’s speech writer was just 27 when he wrote  Obama’s inaugural address at a Starbucks. 

o   Conceptual artist Piero Manzoni crapped in 90 small cans which were then factory sealed and offered for sale at the price of gold.

My favorite Kenyan, partner in crime, and good friend Lilian

I hope that I also have big things to fill my 27th year, (OK, maybe not the poop in cans thing...) Personally, I think that year 27 will be no different from the previous 26. It will be filled with adventures, good friends, interesting places, and a wonderful family. 


I guess those lines around the eyes aren't so bad after all-- they're just indicators of a life filled with laughter...

P.S.  I'm very, very pleased that I have absolutely no musical talent... 27 is a bad age to turn if you are a famous musician.  Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain all died at 27. (see mom and dad, NOW I betcha you’re glad those piano lessons didn’t pay off)