"Transition" by Jethro P

     Think back to your first day of school. You were about five or six years old, being walked
to the classroom for the first time ever. Think back to the clothes you wore in your younger
years or the Power Ranger or Spongebob backpack that made you a popular kid at school.
     Think back to learning the letters of the alphabet and how to count. Think back to meeting your
first best friend or imaginary friend (no one’s judging), having your first sleepover and eating
junk food all night, having your first red card pulled on you and crying about it (maybe this was
just a “me” thing), and all the infinite firsts that may come to mind.
Let’s fast forward to junior high school. Most of us felt like adults already going in sixth
grade. If it was anything like Ned’s Declassified: School Survival Guide then you would have
thought middle school was insane. However, what we thought was serious wasn't really that
serious. We cared about colored skinny jeans, jerking, hitting the dougie, buying silly bands, and
the list goes on.
     Present day, here we are doing things we would actually do in the real word, or what our
elementary school selves would call “grown up stuff”. It's great that we've grown to become
adults but it's kind of depressing at the same time. We don't know when it happened or how but
it did and there's nothing we could do about it. We can't go back because time only moves
forward. In a blink of an eye, apple juice turned into alcohol, blowing bubbles suddenly became
marijuana and cigarettes, candy became drugs, sleep overs turned into parties, scooters turned
into cars, best friends became strangers, and coloring books became study guides. Suddenly,
everyone drives and we become less dependent of our parents. When did that happen? When
did we stop asking for rides and permission from our parents? Life just flashes by and we are
unaware of it. Every time we look back at where we came from, the road becomes longer and
what happened yesterday soon becomes what happened a year ago.
     There's a beauty in all this, though. Every time we reminisce about childhood memories,
we can't help but smile. That's the beauty of living our lives; everything comes to an end. That
makes every memory that much more precious. As graduation day approaches, high school has
to come to an end but we can look back and see all of the friendships we made and reminisce
about every major event that helped shape us into who we will be. It's a good thing that
everything comes to an end because it teaches us how to love harder, grow stronger and
cherish every tiny detail in our lives. Once you learn how to accept that everything comes to an
end, you can live every day happy and content. Life can go faster than you think but you can
slow it down and just appreciate everything in between.