Before today becomes our yesterday.

Tomorrow, my friend Paul and I turn 18. It's a golden birthday! Wheee!! We've always had fun having the same birthday.

But only just now, we were mourning our last hours as children. It was rather pitiful. (I, being the girl, was far more pitiful...)

It just sort of occurred to me that the rest of my life is lived in adulthood.

Call me naive and childish, but yes, I did just realise that.

And it makes me think -- there really is no going back.

10 years from now, I will still be me - not some magically transformed person who changed ages. The things I do now will become who I am later.

People say, "treasure every day, because it could be the last you've got."

And while I'm still young and have my whole life ahead of me, it sort of makes me realise how much each day really is a treasure. Because -- really, this is...IT. Pretty soon I have to go to college. I have to move out. I have to live on my own....for the rest of my life.

I'm starting to realise more and more what people mean when they say that the teen years are a launching pad for the rest of your life.

Because really, the "rest of your life" is the majority of your life. Childhood is such a very, very small part of your life.

As some random song that's played on the radio station goes,

"This is the first day of the rest of your life."

It's weird, but it's actually kinda true.

Isn't growing up weird? It never stops happening. I keep thinking I'll hit some happy medium and be the same for a long time. But clearly this is not the case.

I have two more years left before I go to college. That's two more years of my family as I know it now. Am I treasuring it while it lasts?

Do I push my little brother off when he wants to hang out with me? Am I listening to my music when my older little brother wants to talk to me? Do I ignore my dad when he wants to tell me something, or my mom when she wants help in the kitchen?

Even now, I look back at my days of being 8 years old and thing "those were the days."

But what's to stop me from making these days "those days?" Will I look back on these years with joy? I want to.

I want to remember the way my brothers laugh when I tickle them, the way my mom smiles when I surprise her, the way my dad goofs off and teases me. I want to treasure every moment while it's here.



Teach me to number my days
And count every moment before it slips away
Take in all the colors before they fade to gray
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this

When it's all said and done
No one remembers how far we have run
The only thing that matters is how we have loved
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this

Slow down, slow down
Before today becomes our yesterday
Slow down, slow down
Before you turn around and it's too late

It happens in a blink
It happens in a flash
It happens in the time it takes to look back
I try to hold on tight, but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life
It happens in a blink.