When We Were Young

Whenever spring rolls around, thoughts of a younger and wilder time comes rushing back to me. Not that I am no longer still young and wild . . . and well free. But maybe I am just a different, more adult, version of being all these things. I think it's the hint of warmth in the air that makes the brain think these exhilarating thoughts. Summer. School's out. Everything is still up in the air. Going out behind our parent's back. Kissing boys in cars. Trying so hard to fit in. Fearing so much that we won't fit in at all. Messing up and placing blame in places they don't belong. Not knowing what is right and what is wrong. Trying too hard. Not trying hard enough. Hating ourselves and others and the world. The moment when falling in love for the first time happens and makes everything shitty feel so much better again. Man, we felt a lot when we were young. But we also didn't know a lot yet. Being young and wild and free . . . well it's tough. But it's also beautiful. I love comparing myself now to who I was in high school. Just another tall and lanky kid in awkward flares and beat up Converse and who wasn't that great in math but could tell one heck of a story. Or at least that is what her English teach said. Only thought she knew real love twice, and is now still trying to figure out what love actually means and if she'll actually find it. Her head was full of dreams and her notebooks were filled with scribbles of these dreams in their tangible and animated forms. Never really feeling good enough for lots of things and was scared of so much because of it, but somehow found a way to trust her own head and heart, and that led her just fine. But still so many things need to be figured out. To be experienced. The journey of being young and becoming wise begins each and every single day. And it never ends if we make the decision to never let it end. And we can keep on learning and being young forever because of it. If we want it. Let's use this summer to bring back all that remind us of when we were young. The amazing and unforgettable. Even the hardest and scariest parts. Let's take them all and not be afraid to live them again. Young. And wild. And free. Why not? Without them, we wouldn't be who we are today. And because of that we should be proud of who we were then.

** Pictures from random tumblrs including:  http://thebohemiangirl.tumblr.com/ and http://bohemianspirit.tumblr.com/