I remember my first day of high school like it was yesterday. My dad pulled up to a big stucco office building, drove around the corner, through the carpool line and as I opened the door in my pleated navy pants and collared t-shirt my dad said to me in a firm voice, “These are going to be the fastest four years of your life." He most definitely was not wrong.
The next thing I knew, I was walking across the carpet stage in Bojangles Coliseum shaking the hand of our principal with one hand and receiving my diploma in the other. I was officially an alumni of Charlotte Catholic High School. Summer flew by with worked filled days and friend filled nights. The next thing I knew, I was officially in college. All through my senior year and the summer before I left for college, I was just eager to step foot onto the North Carolina State University campus and officially start my new life as a college freshman. Little did I know, my life would very literally never be the same.
It wasn't until just now that I have realized how different my life is now that I am in college. I live in a different city. I have different friends. I barely talk to my high school friends who I talked to everyday, and I miss them. I only know the big things that happen within my family. I can no longer cry to my mom and be comforted by her warm reassuring hugs. I no longer get home-cooked meals. I can't just go grab coffee with my dad on a Saturday morning and my siblings are like strangers to me. I never see my grandparents. I have to do my own laundry. I no longer have my mom to remind me of my responsibilities. Even though I have thousands of people around me, college is still lonely. It's not the same.
All these things are constantly changing around me. I guess what they say is true, life really does go on, but I just don't know where the time has gone. I never thought I would ever say this, but I miss the days where things were simple, happy, and innocent. I miss the days when my dad called me his “little girl" and the times when I had no worries at all other than learning how to swim and ride a bike without training wheels. I would do anything to go back and pause time. To just slow it all down. I guess they call it growing up, but I want to stay a kid forever. Don't wish away your childhood years because once they're gone, they're never coming back.
