To My Last Year Of Being a Teenager,

I can’t believe our time together is nearly over. You are leaving me alone in the real world to be a real adult. I don’t know how I’m going to adjust to this transition, but until the time comes, I want our time together to be memorable.

These are the best years of my life and a time to experiment and find myself. Before and after our time togethe,r my life was and will be dictated by another person, whether it’s a boss or a parent.

Normal is overrated.
Coming to the realization that I will soon get into a “normal routine” scares me. You taught me that college is everything it’s supposed to be when you’re, more often than not, eating Domino’s on the floor of your dorm with the girls who will someday be your future roommates. Or that going to sleep at 3 a.m. and waking up for an 8 a.m. on a Friday is OK.

Freedom.
You have given me the freedom to do things I won’t be able to get away with without the label of being a teenager. And so for the last few months that I get to call you mine, I want to hold this deep in my heart.

I forgive you.
I forgive you for the awkward situations you’ve put me in. For making me look like an idiot in front of the person who I thought I would marry someday, because quite frankly, we both knew that wasn’t going to happen any way.

Thank you.
Thank you for the endless memories, thank you for bringing me closer to my friends and family through things we knew we couldn’t withstand on our own. Thank you for teaching me that it’s OK to depend on people who care about me. Thank you for keeping my secrets safe within these final months. What’s done in our teen years, hopefully, stays in our teen years.

I hope that these years and months contain the stories I tell my kids — the stories that are so crazy, they won’t believe they actually happened.

And finally, to anyone who has just began these years, I hope you go through highs and lows and everything in between. From someone who has been there and done that, DO IT. Don’t stop yourself from going to the party because you’re scared of what others might think. Don’t live your life on someone else’s terms. There is a time and a place to follow the rules, but these years aren’t it.

As I come to the end of my teenage years, I finally realize how much I’ve taken this time for granted. There is so much freedom and lack of decision-making and time wasted on complaining, but also an irreplaceable number of memories and moments of truth.

So, to my final months of being a teenager, please treat me well.