"We Won't be Seventeen Forever"

I want to start this week off with a dash of mourning for my childhood, which, as of July 26, has officially ended. I’m eighteen now—a legal adult—and that totally freaks me out. It’s like graduation all over again!

            The night before my birthday, I essentially had an anxiety attack. I started crying because I only had a few hours left of my childhood for the Rest. Of. My. Life. I’ll never get to “just be a kid” again, or be considered anything but an adult. There’s no turning back. No rewind or even a pause button. I felt like I was in a movie, when a character is about to die and they see snippets of their life flash before their eyes. All the things I wish I could go back and do differently, every regret I had, every childish mistake I made, would not leave my brain!

            I was finally able to fall asleep and woke up to have a wonderful eighteenth birthday. I got to have fun but still relax, and it was just an all-around lovely day. I can’t complain, there was not a single bad or negative thing about it! I realized over and over again how lucky and blessed I truly am. I just honestly have the most amazing people in my life! True friendship is so hard to find these days, so I’m extremely spoiled when it comes to my friends. I’ve had a lot of friends, and I’ve had true friends, and let me just tell you, quality beats quantity any day. So at this point in my life, I’m happy. I’m constantly trying to keep up with life, and I may not always be perfectly content, but I am very grateful and very happy.

            Basically, I’ve come to realize I shouldn’t be so sad about ending a chapter of my life because this isn’t the end of my book; I’m more excited about getting some ink on the first page of the next chapter! I think that’s how life should be approached. Life is constantly progressing. If we are too busy glancing behind our backs at what we leave behind as we grow older, how are we going to guide ourselves for the future? We can only move forward and it can only go up, as long as I’m in charge of my life! Bring it on, adulthood.

            Always, Anna