Today I turned twenty.

Yes, I am in my twenties and I am cringing.

But believe it or not, nothing has really changed… Basically turning 20 really just means two things – I survived teen pregnancy (even after spending years obsessed with ‘Juno’) and I can now start sentences with ‘when I was a teenager…’

I am cringing again.

It is my first birthday living in a hemisphere where July is considered ‘Summer’ and it was probably the coldest birthday of my life. Summer in Reykjavik reminds me a lot of winter in Adelaide…

But today I feel the need to reflect on the last 12 months. Being 19 has exceeded all expectations. I have thrown myself so far out of my comfort zone in the past year that I hardly recognise the photos of the 19-year-old gym junkie/law student from 2013. And I can honestly say that life is great.

This time last year I spontaneously flew to Melbourne, where I spent the day exploring the city and struggling to understand the European nomads in my hostel who had forgotten to go home at some point. I was just about to leave on my own three month European trip, and even though I was completely inspired by their passion for travel, surely I would never be able to part with my dogs longer than my intended three months… But let’s not talk about my dogs on the other side of the world. I don’t want to cry on my birthday.

These amazing people surrounded me with smiles and laughter, and of course a few beers and an amazing pub rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’. I had only met them that day but I felt as though I were surrounded by my closest friends.

I have learnt in the past year that when you are surrounded with travellers you are always surrounded by friends. You are surrounded with inspiration, stories and kindness. Because people who spend their time seeing the world consider every interaction to be an experience. You are no longer just weirdly talking to strangers, each conversation is another experience in your unique journey that many refer to as ‘life’.

My last birthday inspired me, and I was determined to age again this year surrounded by spontaneous kindness. My amazing friend Marco and his beautiful girlfriend Alice surprised me by leaving a birthday drink at my door, (Somersby, my favourite!). And with no intentions of having a night out I could not resist a midnight celebration. I decided to walk down the main street of Reykjavik and share the moment with someone completely random. at 11:50 on July 9th I found some friendly-looking locals and asked if they could help open my bottle, they of course did. I then asked if I could stand with them until midnight. They gave me some strange looks so I explained the situation. 10 minutes later I was sitting at a table of local rafting guides as they sung Happy Birthday to me and congratulated me on ageing. (Thanks guys).

I spent the day of my birthday (now referred to as International Kat Day) inside a volcano. Seriously. After a short hike, we defended to the depths of one of Iceland’s dormant volcanos. Dormant volcanos are: ‘the volcanos that are quiet, but might possibly erupt again. A dormant volcano is “sleeping,” but it could awaken in the future.’ So we defended 160m into the sleeping volcano, 5 at a time down an old German window cleaning lift and then admired the inside of the magnificent magma chamber. Iceland’s Thrihnukagigur is the only volcano in the world which offers this experience, and it truly is spectacular.

My fellow volcano explorers of the day sang happy birthday to me, and as 20 is the legal drinking age in Iceland I decided to have one of my first legal drinks at the bottom of the volcano. Yes, I sat inside a volcano drinking cider on my birthday. That’s turning 20 in style.

After getting home and sharing a few drinks with my favourite housemate (our dog Lappi) I decided to head out. After some birthday shots from one of my other amazing housemates Dabi, I ended up spending the night hanging out with strangers, and I’m sure if I were more of a music buff I would have been a bit starstruck by the people buying me birthday shots…

I think I will make this whole celebrating ageing with strangers things a ritual, at least until I get to an age where it may be considered creepy…

But I can assure you, I am just as naive and reckless as I was yesterday. The only thing that has really changed in my life today is the age on my Tinder profile…