The Last Day

It's here. My eighteenth birthday. Well, it will be tomorrow, anyway. And that's why I'm writing this. Today is my last day to be seventeen. 17. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed being 17. In fact, if you think about it, I've enjoyed being every age in my teenage years. (Can't remember actually feeling happy to be nine or anything. haha) I know most people hate being 14 because they were so awkward, sometimes 15 gets lumped in for the same reason. But while I was ridiculously awkward during those years, I didn't really notice it--or at least I didn't care. I just really enjoyed 14. I thought 15 was GREAT! Being 16 was amazing. And 17? Let me show you what made being 17 wonderful.

What I did during this last year:
My 1st birthday party!
Senior year (the spring part of it)
My last semester of choir
The choir Disney trip! (This is sol much fun!)
Graduating
Hawaii
Surfing
My first mission trip to Boston!
Visit to PA to see Ryan, Noelle, and Julianne
Getting to see the Builtmore Estate
The start of "real college"
One of my most enjoyable semesters of college
   --made possible by the best English class led by the best teacher
   --and also by two friends who got me through ridiculously tough classes.
Surprising Justin in WI after he got sworn in
Wrote my first 50,000 word novel in 30 days!!!
Getting my sister back for a month!
Having my whole family here on Christmas day!
Getting my license

Do you understand a little better? Haha. Of course, I could have done most of those things regardless of my being 17, but there's just something...There's something in the number 17. There's a special connotation when you say "I'm 17." There's a lingering idea of still being "young." Not in a sense that now I'm done for, and I'll never have fun, and I'm suddenly old. Just the idea that you're no longer a kid. You might be young-er, but you're not young. You're not little. 18-year-olds vote; they join the army...hey, they can buy stuff off of infomercials. Haha! This last year has been the most growing I've ever done in my life. The most spiritual growing, the most emotional growing, and the most growing I've done as in learning new things and getting older. Trying to go back and think about the beginning of being 17...I don't even feel like the same person. Piles of things transpired over the summer that I feel like it was a year in and of itself. Yes, only three months being a year. Sounds weird, but that's how I feel. I will miss 17, the number, the label, and the idea. I will miss being able to say "I'm 17." I'm sad to being turning *another* page in my book. I know that's what life is about, but it doesn't make it any easier. So many pages have turned this year...I just want to read these pages a little longer.

Goodbye 17! It's been the best, spending time with you!