I am about to start my freshmen year of college, so it is forcing me to reminisce on my first eighteen years of life. Eighteen years is not that long compared to life itself, but your whole childhood happens in these years. You are learning to walk between the ages of one and two. You start school at the age of five and move your way up all the way to graduating high school.

From high school applications to college applications and scholarships. From passengers to drivers. From first loves to first jobs. From first jobs to first paychecks. All within the realm of eighteen years. I myself turned eighteen and graduated high school all within two weeks.

You do not realize how fast life is happening until you are looking back on it. There is this one picture that I look at all of the time. It is a picture of my father introducing me to the beach for the first time. I cry every time I look at it but it motivates me to want to make my parents proud. It is probably my favorite childhood picture even though I was just a baby.

I'm sure that a lot of people my age are feeling how I am feeling right now. Our lives are moving so fast in such a short amount of time. Many of us are moving to college in about a month or some of us have started full time jobs. If you have started a full time job, chances are you have already signed up for benefits or a retirement plan. If you are about to move to college you are buying your dorm supplies and going to accepted student days.

All of this at only eighteen years old. At eighteen we are still considered teenagers, yet we are expected to act like adults.

We are forced to make the decisions that will change our lives forever. Maybe some of us are even thinking about ten years into the future. We are the new era. Some of us will be doctors, nurses and medical professionals; others will build the houses we will build our families in. We will learn the hardships of life and the little things will become the big things. The question running through my mind all day everyday is, "Will I be successful?"

As I sit here looking at the picture of my father and I with tears rolling down my face, I am sad that this chapter of my life is over but I am so excited to start the new chapter. Class of 2017 high school graduates, we can do this. We have prepared for this for eighteen years. Let's make something out of ourselves and change the world. Let's reach for the stars and complete our goals. Life is a beautiful gift and this is only the beginning.