I one time got asked the question, “What was your favorite part about being a kid?” and I thought on it for a moment and came up with multiple possibilities. I thought well maybe my favorite thing was not having a phone or social media, and having to ride your bike to your friend’s house to see if they were home. Or that you never had to set a date and make plans to hang out, all you had to do was look for the nearest kickball game or football game or hide–n-go seek in the dark tag to have your plans for the day. After much thinking, those things were a really good part of my childhood, yet when it came down to it, my favorite thing was simply that: being a kid.

As a kid, most of the time, you never had to worry about getting hurt unless you fell and scrapped your knee. You didn’t pay attention to the news, to come and find out how corrupt our government and country really is. You never had to be afraid of falling asleep and waking up to having the person you love the most walk out of your life (because your parents were that person or people). Your friends stayed your friends no matter how mad you got at each other, and you didn’t ever have to question who your real friends were because you always had them. As a kid, all you had to worry about was when your next tooth was going to fall out so you could get money from the tooth fairy. You had something to believe in because no one ever tore down your dreams, and you were your own biggest fan. Either wearing your entire uniform to sleep or wearing your cleats everywhere you went, you never once doubted yourself in what you were doing.

Time has a funny way of making us forget what we used to believe in. When you were once your own biggest fan, now you find anything possible to hate about yourself. The dreams you believed in are now barely there or diminished because of someone or multiple people telling you that you wouldn’t be able to achieve it or that it wouldn’t work, so you gave up on them. Girls started wearing more and more makeup, because they heard somewhere it would make them prettier and feel better about who they were, and that they would be noticed more. Guys started dressing nicer, and putting on cologne because they saw somewhere that it would attract girls to them. As we got older, we stopped focusing on what made us happy, and we started caring more about what others thought, or who they saw us as.

Now I can’t say much, I’m just an 18-year-old girl who has barely seen the world, but what I do know is this: We have a choice every single day. If the kid version of yourself saw you today, would you be proud to let them see who you’ve become? Could you look at them in the eye, and tell them that you’re doing your best? I know there have been moments in my life where if I got to see my younger self, I would be embarrassed to even look at them. That I chose to let myself get to certain points that I as a child promised myself I would never get too. Can you honestly say that that wouldn’t happen to you?

I’m no expert, I have no degree, and I haven’t lived a very long life. All I have is my mind, my experiences, and the lessons I have learned along the way. If you are by chance a kid reading this, don’t wish your life away. BE A KID. Stop trying to grow up so fast and just live day by day, don’t expect anything and don’t give what is not deserved. For the people my age, who have experienced things like I have, it’s not too late to change to the person you want to be. You have to willingly choose to, though, no one can make you. To the adult reading this up to this point, I don’t know much about adulthood other than the fact that everyone keeps telling me my life is about to be a whole bunch of bills and debt ahead. All I can say to you reading this is that you can’t stop living because life gets in the way. Life is a beautiful thing, and while you may be too busy worrying so much about bills, and over working to get that promotion, or being exhausted because your kids just will not listen to you, you need to stop, first take a deep breath, and realize how beautiful life really is. You being so worried about everything in it is taking away the beauty that’s put into it.

Again I don’t know much, but what I do know is that Time flies, and before you know it, you’re looking back regretting the time you’ve lost. Stop looking back and look forward. Things can only go up from that point.