By the time this article has been written, I will be an adult and starting a new chapter of my life. As many have expressed, it comes very fast and is hard to believe at first. 

Though the thought of it may sound daunting, and I have been advised to enjoy my youth as long as possible, I see this as a road of new possibilities and opportunities I can now experience. I like to take this with an optimistic approach, as I feel I have enjoyed my childhood as much as I possibly could have, and along the way have learned many valuable lessons that I would like to share. 

One thing I have learned is to know my limits and not take on too much. I have experienced many times where I would over commit to activities thinking I can handle it, and then I would end up not having a moment to rest and would become overwhelmed. After realizing how it was hard to balance everything and that there was not many benefits to doing so much, I now commit much of my time to what I am passionate about and make sure to prioritize myself.

I also have learned not to not overly worry too much about my appearance, because in the future I will have spent my entire life worrying about my looks and regret it later. Our insecurities are often taught to us, as when I was younger I never had these insecurities. Now, when I see that I may have some acne or there is a “flaw” that I notice about myself, I don’t try to worry too much, because this is often out of my control and nobody is perfect, even if they may seem to be in our eyes. I have realized that the only way I have noticed so many things about my appearance is by staring at myself in the mirror for a while, but in reality, people don’t look at your appearance that closely, and they often don’t care that much if it isn’t anything dramatic.

One other lesson that I have found more relevant in recent years is to enjoy every moment and live in the present. As I have gotten older, my days have been going by increasingly faster, as I have been falling into the same comfortable routine of waking up, going to school, doing homework and any other extracurricular, and going to bed. This also applies to the summertime when I get up, go to work, do some other small activities then go to bed. As I live life by just doing the motions, the time goes by so fast it is already a few months have passed. After realizing how this has eaten up a lot of my time, I decided to think of new experiences I could have to make my life seem longer and my days not feel as rushed. Having newer experiences is what makes our days seem longer, and as we get older we have less new experiences.

One last lesson is to not compare yourself to others. As much as we offer this advice to others, we often still compare ourselves to others. Not everyone can handle the same amount of work as someone else, so thinking you aren’t that smart because someone is taking more advanced classes is not a valid reason. It would a very boring world if everyone was the exact same and did not have some variety in their lives and activities, so I now know to focus what I am best at and be proud of myself for I currently accomplish.

Even though there are many other lessons I have learned and words of advice I have for myself in the future, these are some that I felt were very important and also ones many can relate to.