We all want to grow up so quickly, but once we reach the peak of our youth, we want to be young once again. We tend to rush time. We spend our lives trying to make the days shorter and the years go by faster, but once this wish comes true, we regret our decision and beg time to slow down. We soon dread the years of growing up and wish we hadn’t taken our childhood for granted.
Throughout my years, I have realized that we all must learn discipline and understand that we have all the time in the world to be an adult, but we only have a few short years to be young. We push the ones we love the most away, not realizing the regrets we will have in the future. We spend our days wishing to grow up, rushing our childhood, and not understanding that someday we will be all on our own. Our mothers won’t be there to give us a good morning kiss, and our fathers won’t be there to tuck us in at night and check under the bed for monsters. As we grow older so do our parents, and pretty soon we will have to face the fact that they won’t be there for us anymore.
Our childhood doesn’t last long. Age comes quickly, and it captures our youth. I have often wandered to myself how such beauty could be destroyed by age, and how quickly time slips away from us. Age reminds us each day of the mistakes we have made, the regrets we have, and the memories that we want to forget. Age tends to make us slowly slip into a depression that can only be cured with the happy memories of our childhood.
I realize now that I shouldn’t take advantage of my pure skin, no wrinkles, and naturally fit body. These are the perks of youth that should never be taken advantage of. I miss the feeling of freedom, having all the time in the world, and when boys were considered “icky.” I miss the days when the worst phrase ever spoken was “shut up.” I miss the days when I could entertain myself just by running around in my backyard and when the hardest decision I ever had to make was which ice cream flavor I wanted.
It’s important to understand that growing up isn’t as exciting as it seems. There are more responsibilities then we could have ever imagined. Someday, you’ll be sitting in an empty room all by yourself, staring into the darkness and wishing you could go back to the golden days. You’ll be thinking about all the mistakes you once made. You’ll be wishing you would have told your mother you loved her before you walked out the door. You’ll be wishing that you would have thanked your father for all that he has sacrificed for you before you stepped into the car. These are the moment that we all dread. These are the times when a waterfall of regrets comes rushing into your mind sweeping away all the happy memories you once had. You start to understand that your only true friend that was there for you when you needed a helping hand was your mother. You realize that the only man who loved you with all his heart was your father. Your eyes fill up with tears of regrets and the feeling of loneliness replaces the excitement you once felt.
For everyone it seems like the same cycle; memories are made, time flies by, and we can’t go back in time to change the past. What needs to be understood is that each moment must be treasured, even the worst of them. We are all haunted by the mistakes we once made, the regrets we have, and the youth we once flaunted. I have learned in life that memories aren’t made to be forgotten. Memories are made to help us on our journey through life. I want to make memories and not spend my life trying to forget them. The most important lesson I have ever learned from my elders is to never cry over the past because it is long gone, to never stress about what is to come in the future, and to live in the present and make each day worth it.