Seventeen is a place that I could only describe as... well rocky to say the least.
I have been tasked with the responsibilities of being an adult but I find myself a year away from all the perks.Well five months to be exact, and more so this year, I have discovered how challenging teenage life is.
Between school, family and friends, I still have to find time to fit in a part time job, sport, healthy eating and study time and trying to achieve that balance is not always that simple. Life has a funny way of throwing the most unexpected variables into our equations and be sure they don't always make things easier to understand.
It's always as soon as I think I've finally got enough time to breathe, that I suddenly find myself being dragged back underwater, or in my case, under piles and piles of notes and worksheets.
Some days it honestly just feels like my life is being dictated by font size 11 words trying to enlighten me about the kidney and scientific formulas trying to get me to discover that the terminal velocity of any object will be constant.
The only thing that ever feels constant these days is the feeling that everything I do this year will define who I am forever. Its scary to think that this is my last year of high school. To think that next year I will have to say goodbye to my friends, and that we might never see each other again as our lives take us in completely different directions.
These 9 girls have really changed my life and helped create the person I am today. If ever there have been problems, and trust me there have been plenty, from boys to misunderstandings among friends, I have always known that if ever I found myself alone in my dark room sobbing my eyes out every single one of them would be there with ice cream and alcohol before my tears could make my mascara run. I know I have at least 4-6 moms that I have no biological connections with, but that love and treat me like their own daughter, and its all thanks to these amazing young women that, dare I say it, have become my sister and companions for life.
Although this year presented a unique set of challenges it also brought with it plenty of nights I wont ever forget. Concerts like Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Swedish House Mafia and more filled my year with music and memories. Movie nights and birthday sleepovers that ended up becoming utter chaos as nine girls ran rampant, high on sugar and caffeine, in nothing but skimpy pajamas and slippers will never be forgotten. You can always be sure that with these girls your night will be a raging success if you have Mean Girls and Bridesmaids, and endless supply of tea, and enough cupcakes to put Carlos Bakery to shame.
I don't believe that I will never ever see these creatures that ensure my life is always overflowing with girl talk and endless gossip again, because it would take the Earths oblivion to ever tear us apart.
Our break time conversations have evolved from envy over each others barbies to how gross boys were to how edible they've become to the latest gossip about that girl at the party and now to university plans. It's scary to think that, what feels like yesterday, I was thinking how long the last 6 years of my school career were going to take, and now I only have 425 days left until they ask me to stop coming to school.
How ironic is it that for 13 years they beg and force you to come to school every single day and then suddenly, as if your final year were a disease that you've now caught, it all changes and they start to politely tell you that you can't hang around anymore because your scaring the little kids.
Seventeen has been a year full of ups and downs, some downs that nearly hit the core of the Earth and some ups that lead me to believe I was partly eagle and could fly. I can remember thinking to myself last year December that 2014 was going to be a year to remember. I looked at the calendar and discovered it was already October and I had still done nothing that would set this year apart from the others. I swear it was April less than a minute ago?
I must say though, this year has taught me one thing, and that's that life is like trying to build a house of cards, outside, in a public park. There are guaranteed to be obstacles like joggers and old ladies, and sudden gusts of wind that threaten to blow everything over, but once you've completed your masterpiece, everyone passing by will stop and stare and think to themselves, " How on Earth did (s)he manage to build something so wonderfully delicate in such a harsh environment?!" And it will be your turn to take a step away and say, "This was all me.'
2014 has been a year of love, life and learners licences. Substantial developments in my life have lead me to believe that with love comes heartbreak and the two will always be paired together. I also discovered that I am a human practically incapable of "moving slowly." Whether I'm out jogging in the evenings or trying to navigate the rough seas of relationships, long and short distance, I always find myself sprinting at top speeds and then suddenly coming to an abrupt halt as I run out of stamina and breath to continue and so I'm left standing there wheezing and red in the face.
Am I too young to love? Too young to understand the complexities of what the word entails? I am constantly surrounded by those who are posed on opposite sides of the spectrum, those who believe with every fiber of their being that love exists and can be found in even the smallest place, and those who are dead set against everything teenage love represents and believe that we are incapable of the depth needed to feel these emotions.
Emotions have played a huge part in this year for me and have lead me to make both rash and rational decisions that in the end have ultimately worked out for the better, although not all of the time.
Some advice I can offer is that all highs are only temporary and that lows are determined by your own resilience.
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