There have been a handful of phases that were hard to move on from, but the biggest one is my childhood.

My life is based on seasons and phases. Every time we move (due to my dad’s job in the military), we begin a new phase. My childhood consists of living in Ohio, Virginia, South Carolina, and some of Massachusetts.

Shortly after we moved to Massachusetts, I turned thirteen. Y’all, it was great, but that also meant two things: one, I was a teenager. And two: teenagers are weird.

(Seriously though, teenagers are freaky weird. I’ve been experiencing this weirdness first-handedly for the past three years.)

And with that teenage responsibility came a new realization: my childhood was ending.

Of course, I was still young—and I knew that—but it felt as if my world was ending because my childhood was ending. (Of course, that could have been the crazy season called ‘puberty’.)

So how did I say goodbye to this said childhood?!

Well, I didn’t. Not exactly. It took around three years (meaning: I’m still saying goodbye…). Although being a teenager is fun, like getting to have my own responsibilities, drive, have a job, and such, it’s not easy.

We often say that children are so naive and they don’t know what’s going on in the world, and that’s true! But wasn’t it nice to not have to worry about politics, your relationships, your family or friend drama, learning life skills, college, the future???

Y’all, it sounds like heaven on earth to me.

But believe it or not, we have to grow up. We’re not like Peter Pan! Of course, even Peter had to accept the fact that Wendy would grow up without him. The world is going to grow up without us if we stay in the first grade, learning how to write our threes and sevens and nines the right way.

So with that (I did not plan out this conclusion…), get out into the world and write those sevens correctly! You’ve got this!

You might have left your childhood, but those memories of your childhood will not leave you. Thank God for those birthday-cake Goldfish that I will always remember.

~Willow