Kaitlyn:
March 15th, 2025 is the day I am 18-years-old. The age I have been so excited to turn, but the more I think about it the more I want to go back to being five.
The social pressures that come along with being a LEGAL adult are something I suddenly do not think I can handle. I know I won’t be committing crimes, but I know I will be charged as an adult.
I will be going to college, looking for a serious job, taxes, and just be more mature. I’m not immature, but the sudden obligation to act a certain way, that being an adult, is something I don’t want.
If I make a mistake it feels more heavy. The weight is increased because now that I will be 18, I am expected to be more on my own.
I’m going to be leaving my friends who are in the grade below me, something that is going to break my heart the day I graduate.
I’m comfortable here in the high school, I know the halls, and I know my teachers well. But in college, I don’t know anything, I’m going to be a freshman all over again. I HAVE to grow up now.
The thought of going to school for thirteen more years to go into med school is scary. I am no longer protected by my parents. I will still be living at home for at least the first two years of college, yet I will be expected to be independent. This odd feeling is as though I am stuck in the middle of being a teenager and an adult. I don’t know how to feel.
Addie:
August 22nd, 2025 will be the day I turn 18-years-old, by this time I will be settled into my college dorm almost three hours from the high school, and my family. In just a few short months my entire life will be relocated, and I will become completely dependent on myself and only myself.
I have waited for a new sense of independence my whole life. I vividly remember watching videos of people moving into their college dorm, fantasizing about how I would decorate, and what all my bittersweet goodbyes would look like. I look back at how silly 12-year-old Addie was for that, as now everything seems way too real.
As a senior, I feel extremely comfortable and confident in my current lifestyle and environment. It’s almost draining to remember that everything is going to a 360, but I know that it really is a positive change.
Right now, I love sitting down for family dinner every night, I love my silly part-time job, I love all of my underclassmen friends, and I love the family cat so so much. I also know how much I will miss the educators who made my high school experience bearable, as they have been there every day for four years.
Even though all of the goodbyes are going to be bittersweet, to me they symbolize new beginnings. As I plan to go to school for Agricultural Education, to become an Ag teacher that helps students like how mine helped me. I am going to miss my show lambs and my cat, but I know that I can’t go long without having animals of my own.
As painful as change can be, my outlook is positive after all of the tears of an inevitable new beginning. I know I won’t stay away from Muscatine for too long, but after this summer, my bond with this town won’t be the same.
Interested in how different ages feel? Read Emma Steele’s story, “Is Seventeen the Worst Year as a Teenager?“
