Where Did the TIme Go?

It is amazing how fast time flies after you turn 21. I can recall the first 17 years of my life counting the days until I turned 18. Some days it seemed I would never get there. I wanted to skip my childhood and go straight to adulthood. I had fantasized about what it would be like to be a grown up. I would stay up as late as I wanted, I would get married and have children. I thought that was what would automatically happen the minute I turned 18. But, 18 came and went and my parents still treated me like a child. I couldn't wait to become an adult and be on my own. After high school, I enlisted in the Air Force and was on my way to independence. I was eager to show my parents that I was an adult and capable of making my own decisions.

At first I enjoyed my new found freedom. I came and went as I pleased, then reality set in. I had to get used to being up at 5am and sometimes working 12 hour days. I am not a morning person so you can imagine the effort it took me to get out of bed in the morning. I found myself longing to be back in my bed at home and sleeping at least until 7 am, but it was too late. I was an adult and I was on my own. It was now up to me to be the adult, there was no one there to hold my hand and make it all better. I had gotten my wish.

Now here I am 12 years later wondering where the hell the time went. I can still vividly remember being in the 5th grade and being in the cafeteria carrying my lunch tray scanning the crowd looking for friends to sit with. I can still recall my very awkward first kiss that I received in the 6th grade and playing on the monkey bars chicken fighting. It is kind of ironic that I spent all of my childhood wishing that I was an adult and now here I am wishing like hell that I could go back to the innocent days of my youth.