My Friend Ana

Goodbye, Childhood...

Today, I found myself reflecting on my childhood.

The transition from childhood to adulthood, also known as middle school and high school, is one of the most confusing transitions we'll face- aside from the transition to living and providing for yourself on your own.

We're at this place where we find ourselves looking back on our childhood and wishing we could go back- well, most of us do.

Some of us don't have that "careless" childhood to look back onto.

But we all have that one defining moment when you realize that you're childhood is over.

For me, it was the day my grandmother, whom I had called "Meme", died- that day after my 12th birthday.

I realized then, that my childhood, such as it was, had gone. It had disappeared years before, about as young as 8. But Meme had been that one good piece of my childhood that was always been there, and with her death, my last piece of pleasant innocence died, too.

Thus began the ever so lovely journey of my teenage years.

I never truly experienced those "simpler" times that everyone else seemed to mourn. I realized very young that the only person or thing I could count on, was myself. I only really had one friend, everyone else had just been acquaintances that claimed we were "twins" on Monday because we both had pony tails, and hated me on Tuesday because we matched on Monday. The only things I learned in my childhood were that I was ugly, would never be good enough, that I was too stupid for this world, I was as blind as a bat, and two biggest lessons, I couldn't depend on anyone but myself, and how incredibly cruel people could be.

I find myself applying these lessons to everything I say, think, and do.

As I reflect, I'm coming to peace with the fact that my childhood is over.

My childhood is in the past, as it should be.

We can't continue longing for the past, and wishing we could go back, because that isn't going to happen.

We have to focus on the present, because that's all we can control.

We have to look to the future.

The past is past, and we have to let it go.

We have to let it go...

We have to say goodbye to our childhood, and greet the future.

~~~

Don't Forget to Breathe