My Birthday is September 29, 2006. A few weeks ago, I turned 18. For 12 out of those 18 years of my short life, I sat in those cold, hard school chairs behind a brown wooden desk, flicking my pencil back and forth between my fingers and watching the clock tick down. For the last four years, that clock has seemingly never moved slower, but I am a senior now, and every single rotation the hand makes is another minute closer to the day I taste true freedom. I’m ready to let go.

Leaving High School signifies just one thing in my mind: adulthood. Adults love to tell the youth, “Don’t grow up too fast, the adult world is full of more worries and responsibilities.” Although the statement may be true, I believe that the experiences and opportunities that arise when becoming an adult are so much more grand than what is possible for a younger person, making all of the worries and responsibility worth it. So, when an adult tries to argue with me about why I shouldn’t want to let go of my  youth, I refute with the following:

5.) My thoughts have always been mature, and it’s time they be considered as such:

I was always a mature child. At least that’s what I’ve been told. I never understood what “mature” meant until I grew older and began reflecting on my youth. Of course, I had similar experiences to what everyone expects when they hear the word “childhood” or “youth,” but my mind always held so many more advanced thoughts. When kids were worried about when lunch started, I was concerned with why we were taking a standardized test in the 3rd grade and how that was supposed to determine our intellectual ability.  While others were playing a sport out of love, I was stuck wondering why adults continuously told me to stick with soccer because it could help me get into college. I am 11 years old, why should I worry about college now? Most kids were worried about being alone in the dark, I was concerned about why it was so hard for the healthcare system to help my dying grandmother. Turns out they were simply neglectful.

My young life had been filled of thoughts and questions that no one seemed to have the answers to, or at least they didn’t want to tell me because I was “too young to understand.” However, as I grew older, I became more independent, and my thoughts that couldn’t be answered grew more complex, and they began to bother me.

As a ninth grader I remember wondering why we were required to evaluate 500-year-old Shakespeare texts, but we were not required to take a class that taught us about how to bay pills or how insurance works. I sat at home in front of my school- issued iPad concerned as to why people were so inconsiderate about spreading the covid 19 virus. I could not comprehend why 18 -year-olds are able to buy military-grade guns designed to kill, yet not even eligible to drive a rented car.

I have had so many questions and concerns that have sat heavy on my shoulders and no one my age to genuinely talk about them with. I often regret allowing these types of thoughts to fill my childhood and prevent me from truly enjoying ‘the easy life.’ But now I am the adult age. I am 18. I can vote, I am going to college, and I can act on my thoughts and spread my opinions without them being diminished as silly or unintelligent. I can sit around the dinner table at Christmas and talk about current events and politics without my family taking my words as gibberish coming from a child.

Yes, I am still learning. I will always be learning and I will never know everything, but I am now the age of maturity, and I’m ready for my voice to be heard in that manner.

4.) There is so much beauty in complete independence:

I’ve been doing my own laundry since the second grade, I have always done my assignments without my parents forcing me to do them, and I’ve had confrontations where I’ve chosen to stand my ground for what I believe in. Being independent is something I’ve always valued as a person. Knowing how to live and make decisions without the influence of others is a critical life skill, and it is also beautiful. Becoming an adult comes with a variety of opportunities that forces independence: learning to live alone, taking care of financial situations, simply making time to make food without the help of a parent or guardian. There is so much grace in becoming an adult and learning to grow into a self-sufficient version of yourself. Knowing that you can live and provide for yourself without the help of others can build immense confidence and generate a content mental state. Independence creates a sense of purpose to live. It shows the true capability that the human mind and body posses. Independence is a beautiful thing to experience.

3.) The world is endless, but life is not:

I want to travel. I want to see the world and all of what it has to offer. Despite my love for my little hometown and its small fortunes, I’m ready to see the Earth’s grand treasures. I have been stuck in the corner of my Pennsylvanian region where housing plans cover the vast majority of charming landscapes and our Christmases are spent shoveling half-melted, dirtfilled snow. However deep in my heart I will hold the memories of my life in my home world, I yearn for the memories outside of it. I want to walk the long, broken, stone walkways leading to the bright blue oceans in Greece. I want to touch the thousands of miles of the Incan Roads in Peru. I want to feel the eerie and alluring tenderness of the catacombs in France. I want to taste the hot, rich, homemade espresso in Italy. I want to celebrate the spirits that have passed during El Día de Los Muertos in Mexico.

Travel is limited during youth, mostly because of cost and the fact that family members cannot agree upon a reasonable vacation destination. With the freedom of adulthood, one has the ability to choose where they spend the rest of their live. They also, again, choose how they deal with their financial situation. Some may say that traveling is way too expensive for a young adult. Who said I had to be young to travel? Everyone thinks that they must plan their life in the stereotypical manner: grow up, go to college, get a job, get married, have a kid. All within a 10 year span. I am more than ready to travel once I establish an income that supports it. I am willing to break the stereotypical lifestyle. I would like to travel before I settle down. Who is to tell me that I cannot prioritize seeing the world?

2.) It’s time to set my own path

In our youth, we are usually forced to live in ways that we would not choose for ourselves. We are like sims characters, and our guardians and superiors are controlling the game. Reasonably, though, because we are “too young” to know whats best for us. Are we, though? I spent 12 years of my life playing a sport that my parents placed me in at the age of 5. The last three years of those 12 were some of the most frustrating and unhappy years of my short life, but I continued to play because my parents “saw the talent I had,” or however that goes. I’ve spent almost all of my time in school stressed about my grades and getting myself involved in as much as I could possibly handle because someone decided to make me believe that it was the only way I was going to get into a good college. Even though I made the types of decisions I did in my youth, I made them as a result of what I was forced to believe. I’ve done many things that were not what made me happy, only what I thought was supposed to make me happy.

This is my life. This is my time to do what I want to do. My biggest fear is lying on my death bed, regretting not doing the things that made me most happy in my life. As I grow into adulthood, I am now EXPECTED to make my own life choices and build my own future, and you’re darn right that I am going to take advantage of that expectation to the highest extent.

1.) The best days are not over, they are JUST beginning

For some reason, people like to believe that the ending of youth is the end of the world. When you grow up, you are simply presented with more opportunities to express yourself and to choose how you want to fulfill your purpose that you may not even know you have yet. Growing up does not mean completely ignoring or forgetting about every aspect of your youth. Nothing is stopping you from calling up your parents, aunt, uncle, cousin, or childhood best friend. Nothing is stopping you from getting a weekly basketball game together with your buddies. Nothing is stopping you from building a fort of pillows and blankets and watching a spooky movie underneath it.

It is typical for adults to complain about how much they wish they were young again, and this is the BIGGEST issue. Why are adults so keen on dwelling on their past? For comfort? Sure. For memories? Of course. But why don’t we start looking foreword to tomorrow. Adults should not be telling children of the struggles and hardships of adulthood and then furthering demanding them to “stay young” knowing that is not something they can control. The way society explains and complains about adulthood is creating a predetermined fear of growing up generation after generation. Although I do attempt to cherish my youthful memories, I long for the adventures that I will have as I grow. Just because my age is increasing in number does not mean my youth is expiring. A youthful spirit will always exist in those who choose to allow its company.

My birthday is September 29, 2006. A few weeks ago, I turned 18. The adult age. I am not scared, I am not intimidated, and I am not completely broken knowing that I am leaving my youth years behind. Why? Because in reality, my youth will always be a part of who I am. Every action that I take, every decision that I make, and every conflict that I overcome will be a reflection of who I was in my youth.

Youth does not represent the only phase of joy in one’s life, nor does its end signify restless adulthood. It is simply a gracious, unforgettable period of development that is designed to teach humans how to let go when the time comes.

I am Ready to let go.

Tick,

Tock,

Tick,

Tock,

RINGGGG.

Bring it on, world.