Seventeen.

 

It's been one year since I woke up one morning and realized that I was sixteen. It was a year filled with beauty and pain, the realization of love and what it can do for a soul, hope and despair, but always light. I have had thoughts and emotions that were so wild and deep, and when I would toss and turn at night they would catch fire and the ashes would fall down my cheeks. I have laughed more than a human being deserves and spent more nights smiling when I was thinking about the people I love than the times I had tears in my eyes. 

And so here I stand as a seventeen year old girl with an old soul and a young heart. If you would ask me to read Peter Rabbit or run barefoot on the lawn I would gladly do so, and I will forever love spontaneous adventures and watching movies that were meant for children; I will run under a sprinkler and go bike riding in the rain. I will always hold my childhood and childish delight very close to my heart: because growing up is overrated. And honestly it seems that the older I get the more I hunger for knowledge and yet the less I seem to know. I strive to understand the breathings of my heart and I am left with star dust that trickles through my hands. Maybe there is too much to know, or maybe we were not meant to understand, simply to be understanding.

But I think I like being seventeen. I also like getting to spend time with my two dearest friends and roaming around the city I am going to live in (in exactly 26 days if everything goes according to plan) with no other plan except to go where the wind takes us. I love seeing new shops and discovering owl mugs and visiting Starbucks. I like watching movies with these girls and gasping when something scary is about to happen, and listening to music which has been the sound of my summer. I like discussing Psalms and reading chapters to each other, and talking about Jesus. I love laughing and I think this year will be filled with laughter.

xx. Amy Jane