As a young child I was like every other child should be. I had a world winning smile that could light up the world. I never worried about anything. I never had to worry are we going to have money for food next month or are we going to have a Christmas this year. As a teen of only 14 people don’t think I worry. In reality many teens worry too much. My father is an American soldier and when he was deployed I always worried is he going to come home. Was last Christmas his last holiday with us? The thing is when you get older the things that meant so little to you means the most.

At the age of 12 I could not stand my little brother I’m not the only one many teens feel this way. At the age of 14 when a friend of mine passed away and I saw how bad his older sister hurt and how she would do anything for one more day with him to tell him how sorry she was. I started to understand and realize that my brother really means a lot to me. Yes he can drive me crazy and annoy me to the point I just want to scream but I wouldn’t trade those days for anything. The things like playing hide n seek at the age of 6 back then it meant nothing but at the age of 14 I look back and smile at those memories. I smile at all the little things that I did and I understand now that we take a lot of things for granted and sadly many of us don’t realize that until what we had is gone. I always thought my best friend would be there. I never thought I would lose him but I did on February 18th. Now that he’s gone and I can’t tell him the things I want to all the little things we did mean the most to me. The times we would sit and fish in a creek that didn’t have fish so we would be sitting there for hours knowing we wouldn’t catch anything. Looking back I’m happy I took the time to do that.

There are still those days I take things for granted. The things you take for granted are usually the things that mean the most. A day at the beach with your family when one your friends is having an end of school years party, or a trip to your grandparents when your friends family invited you on a ski trip. These should mean the most to you, you never know if the goodbye you say is really goodbye. It could be goodbye I will see you in a few days or something could happen and that goodbye could mean forever. The things we take for granted are things many other people want.

A happy family with a father who works all day, what that father doesn’t know is another man wants that he wants a family but doesn’t have one. When that father has one but he took it for granted. Adults, kids, and teens all take things for granted and we don’t realize that until what we had is gone. It shouldn’t be that way we should not have to go through the pain of having things taken to realize how much it means to us. I myself have taken things for granted and lost things and didn’t understand how much they meant to me until they were gone. I look back every day and wish I would have known then how much that person or object meant to me so I could tell that person or cherish that object. I lost my chance to tell the person who meant a lot to me how much they mean. Just because I lost my chance does not mean you did. So tomorrow when you wake up just remember just because they are there today does not mean they will be tomorrow.