I hadn’t realized I had grown.

I feel mostly the same.

I look mostly the same.

But I think something has changed.

 

The night before I left,

I stained my pillow with tears.

The fear of growing up was far too much to bare.

 

When I got to my room it was small and barren.

I was so overwhelmed of where I would put all my things,

How I would survive without my parents, without my friends.

 

On my first day, I put in my earbuds to drown my expeditious beating heart.

I left the safety of my room, to arrive at math 105 twenty minutes early.

I sat, anxiously waiting for the day to begin.

It wasn’t so bad.

 

Each time I sat in a class minutes too early,

It all began to feel familiar.

I have done this before, and I can do this again. I tell myself.

After all, it is just a class, and I have taken plenty of those.

 

With each passing day it became easier.

I made friends that helped me fill my free time.

I actually understood my homework.

And I really began to believe I could make it.

 

When I came home everything was the same.

But different.

Time here had gone on without me.

I felt different. I looked different.

 

I have become an independent being and all the things I knew are now alien.

I sit at my old job eagerly waiting for the minutes to pass by.

So that in time, I can go home and enjoy my time with my family.

Because when summers end,

That means it’s time to go back and grow some more.