Lena Dunham Instagram – Today I am 36! It’s an age that has always held special and slightly terrifying resonance as the same age my mother was when she gave birth to me. Because of that, it always sounded like an unreachable goal, a castle in the clouds and the moment I would be really and truly grown up. And sometimes, in my late twenties and early thirties, it sounded like an unreachable goal for other reasons- because life felt too big to lift and too wide to hide from. Like many of you passionate, engaged and intensely feeling individuals, I tend to be pretty hard on myself. It’s easy for me to think I haven’t reached the necessary milestones that would make me the right kind of 36 year old- whenever that means. But today I am just going to celebrate: celebrate getting here, celebrate the love around me (from new people, from people who I’ve known since I was born, from people I diverged from then came back together with because life is LONG as hell.) I am not just lucky for the obvious reasons- work I love, healthcare, cute dogs, funny family, marriage to someone I adore- but for the less obvious reasons. I’m lucky because I wake up anxious and chug a green tea and then feel even more anxious so I have to call my dad and we end up arguing because I talk too fast. I’m lucky that I have an allergic response to certain antibiotics. I’m lucky that my right knee pops out of its socket, that I have 3 grey hairs that spiral from my head like cartoon energy, that I got in a fight with a man who snapped at me on 16th Street when I blocked his way. I’m lucky for all of this, because it means I’m alive and as long as I’m alive literally anything is possible (except sports. Not sports.) I love you all. Happy Birthday to me/Happy Life to us all (swipe right for the freaks that made me/the gothic child I was born as…)