Ten Years Gone By

May marks 10 years since graduating High School and entering the big scary world of adulthood. Sweet reminders have been slipping into my daily life; from the nostalgic comment on an old photo to a random work conversation which triggered the memory of my favorite song in 2005 (Graduation by Vitamin C, of course!). I listened to it on repeat that entire year and yet today I couldn’t even recall the name without Google assistance. However, as the song streamed from YouTube I remembered just how it nailed exactly how my 18 year old self felt as I moved out of my Mom’s house and began to care for myself.

So we talked all night about the rest of our lives Where we're gonna be when we turn 25

So if we get the big jobs and we make the big money When we look back now, will our jokes still be funny? Will we still remember everything we learned in school? Still be tryna break every single rule?

Will Little Brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man? Can I find a job that won't interfere with my tan?

So here we are, 10 years later, with the answers to the most important questions of the time. Turning 25 felt like a lifetime away, but in reality it came and went just like 26, 27 and currently 28 are doing. We we’re paying bills, our car insurance got cheaper, our parents couldn’t claim us on their taxes, we probably didn’t “get home” as much as we liked and we finally started to realize we aren’t 21 anymore!

Did we get the big jobs and make the big money? Now we know that’s what you’re thirties are for, right? I know I definitely didn’t find a job that didn’t interfere with my tan. In fact, I moved to a country lacking sunshine and where summer lasts four days on the good years!

I don’t remember even half of what I learned in school, but the life lessons have stuck with me and gotten me here today. The things I placed so much importance on when I was graduating school don’t seem as important. We’ve all gone and made wonderful lives for ourselves. I am consistently amazed at my incredible friends. How is it that we are old enough to buy houses, have babies, be parents? (Obviously I don’t feel I am – but lets be frank – it was always the joke that I would be the one still gallivanting around some foreign city at 30? I wouldn’t want to let anyone down!)

Will we think about tomorrow like we think about now? Can we survive it out there? Can we make it somehow? I guess I thought that this would never end And suddenly it's like we're women and men

We know we can survive it out there and make it somehow, but I think we will always be wondering if we’ll think about tomorrow like we think about now. Personally, I’m looking forward to being able to celebrate the last 10 years and can’t wait to see what the next 10 have in store!

#Growingup