One year. One year to learn how to do my own laundry. One year left to go to Waffle House after football games. One year to (attempt to) learn how to save money. One year left to spend every weekend with my best friends watching movies, stuffing our faces with the most unhealthy food on the planet, and helping each other to figure out life. One year to learn my left from my right (yes, I still have to make a L with my hands). One year to make memories. One year to grow up.
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2 of 2
As my senior year starts, the little speck of big fear that has been living in the back of my mind begins to grow. The speck that is growing so large encompasses the feeling of fear and now it begins to allow stress and anxiety to also manifest in my brain. So much to do and so little time. One year.
As high school freshmen and sophomores we are focused on the end goal: graduation and adulthood. We realize it is not about the destination but about the journey. All those days we wished would just hurry up and end are going to be sought after and desired to last forever. For another second of walking with that cute boy in hallway or even worrying about drama at lunch. Anything to go back to a time when worries were small and responsibilities were manageable.
One year left of having mama’s famous pumpkin bread whenever I please. One year left to pick pointless fights with my brother. One year left to fall asleep on the couch to my daddy watching the golf channel. One year left of coming home to thousands of kisses from my dog. One year.
As teenagers, most of us don’t appreciate our family the way we should. We’d rather be out with friends more than at home. But as that now bigger speck of fear grows and grows, you can’t help but start to think about what it will be like to not have your mom to hold you while you vent and cry about that friend that betrayed your trust, the boy who chose someone else, or the stress of schoolwork and good grades.
Now with that growing speck of fear comes a fast rising flood of excitement.
One year until my world will become much larger. One year until we decide our own curfews. One year until we decide who we choose to hang out with and where. One year until we get to decide when (if ever) we clean our dorms.
The Friday night lights will now become college game days. Class sizes will go from thirty kids we know to three hundred people we’ve never met. We know there will be old friends but soon, we hope, there will be countless new ones. We will have the comfort of old memories while we create new ones. We will have a new freedom without all the responsibilities of adulthood. One year.
One year will fly by. Before I know it, the football games, homecoming, senior prom, and my high school gradation will have passed. But for now, every moment will be appreciated. I’ll try to slow down, because all of who I am will soon become who I was, and I know who I will become will really be what’s most important.
This year I am going to soak it all in. I’ll spend time with my friends, savor Mama’s cooking, watch animal planet with my dog, smile when my little brother becomes taller than me, laugh at Daddy’s jokes and relish time with my grandmothers. I know this will be one year I won’t ever forget.
One Year.
