It's funny how we spend our entire childhoods itching to grow up and be an adult. We count down our days until we're too old for nap time, too big for training wheels, until we can watch ourselves without a baby sitter, and we count down days until we graduate high school and move away from our families.

I remember counting down days until I was finally double digits, then a teenager, then sixteen and then nineteen, and now I'm eating my words.

You see, growing up sneaks right up on you, you can't stop growing up, you can't pause time, and you can't go back to the past.

We were ambitious to drive, to go to prom, go away to college. Responsibilities seemed non existent, stress wasn't a factor in our lives unless it was the Sunday before a new week and you had to do homework. We wanted to wear bikinis, belly shirts, "get tatted," and get piercings other than our ears,

They never tell you that boys will one day stop having cooties, and love is so darn complicated. You just wake up one day to find life is no longer sunshine and rainbows. They never tell you people will sometimes try to tear you down, and bad things happen to good people.

They don't tell you how terrifying it is to make your own decisions and have all the freedom you want.

Nobody tells you that one day you will be in kindergarten and then you blink and you're walking across the stage receiving your diploma. You grow up and you pay bills, you have to fill out your own paperwork at the doctor, your parents are not in the other room, you have to budget your own money, birthdays aren't fun anymore, everything is so much more expensive, and it's not always fun.

Growing up is falling in love. Growing up is being heartbroken.

Growing up is getting a job. Growing up is working more than playing.

Growing up is making incredible friendships. Growing up is losing some down the road.

Growing up is being an example for other people, even when you don't necessarily want to be.

Growing up is practicing something until you perfect it.

Growing up is making mistakes and learning from them.

Growing up is hard. Growing up takes work.

Growing up is getting to experience new adventures and making great memories, on a path you don't know the destination to.

Growing up is finding yourself, and loving every minute of it.

Growing up is something that is going to happen whether you want to or not. Simply enjoy your childhood and enjoy being young, because you will only be at that point in your life once.