The future is bright, but it should not be blinding. 

I have never been fond of the idea of growing up. The idea actually scares me quite a bit, and for good reason. 

You cannot keep your life from moving forward, it moves whether you want it to or not. Because of this inevitability of life just happening, we should not feel the need to grow up any faster than we already are.

In eighth grade, people were always contemplating who they would be in high school, and now the constant question is who I am going to become after high school. These types of conversations are always ones I try to avoid. 

Instead, I offer a reminder that embracing childhood is not so bad. 

Trying to stay a child at heart does not have to mean watching the occasional SpongeBob SquarePants episode. For some, like myself, it can mean overcoming the constant need for something new, then stopping for a minute and giving into the small enjoyments high school has to offer.

In an effort to live up to this, I went to my first high school football game. In the first quarter of the game, I turned to a senior intensely cheering for his friends on the field and asked how he felt about this game being one of his last. 

“Time goes fast,” he told me. 

He was going to miss these games once he left.

I looked around the stands upon hearing this and saw a whole other side to this football game. People were snapping pictures with their friends, excitedly shaking their pom-poms, and most of all, smiling. 

What I saw were memories in the making.

While the idea of doing “adult things” like driving or going to college is exciting, speeding through high school is the best way to miss the last few years of your childhood.

You are a kid, no matter how mature you think you are. Embrace it while you still can.