Another year older? Already?

On July 4th, at 7:33 in the morning, I turned 18.

I became a legal adult of the United States of America. I can now do many things in this world that age prevented me from doing so before.

My first act as an adult was to wake up, look at the clock, and scream like a giddy little girl. And, if I continue doing that on every birthday from here on out, I will know that I am happy.

I spent it with my mother, my sister, my neighbors. I got so many text messages from friends I no longer live close enough to to see. It was an amazing day. And if each birthday is spent with the people that I love, I will forever be the luckiest person on Earth.

On the evening of July 4th, I did what I've done every year for as long as I can remember; I watched the Independence Day fireworks go off.

Throughout my life, there have been few constants. However silly or sappy it may seem, fireworks have been one of those few constants. No matter where I am each year on the day of July 4th, no matter where I'm living or who I'm with, the fireworks are there to consume me for 30 minutes. To show me that, even if we have to make it ourselves, magic exists.

In less than seven weeks, I leave for school. Three days later, I start my classes as a Freshman for the first time since I started high school. It is unbelievable to me that I am already in the position I was in four years ago.

The morning I started my Freshman year of high school, I told myself that I should enjoy this, because, before I knew it, it would all be over. And I was right. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, I was done. I was walking at my high school graduation commencement. I was celebrating the end of an era in my life. One I will never see again.

Now, I'm heading off into the world and starting the next era of my life. It is scary to think that I'm in this transitioning stage between child and the kind of adult that isn't tied down to anything. It won't be for four more years that I will be able to pick up and go anywhere. All I can do is promise myself that I will.

It has been a crazy, amazing, terrible, hysterical year this past year. I intend to make this next one even more so.

Love,
Jen