I watch myself grow and I feel unreal and I think about the moments that define us:

Something your father said fifteen years ago,

The first time you held your breath,

A four-leafed clover in the grass next to the sidewalk;

And the moments that define our time–

How many years it’s been since you got the stitches that left scars,

How many semesters you’ve finished since the last time you failed a class,

How many people you’ve kissed since the last time you were really in love.

We’re grown now and the past doesn’t haunt us and the future doesn’t scare us,

And the sunset doesn’t amaze us because it’s pretty, it amazes us because we know why it happens.

We bleed when we fight and we cauterize the wounds,

We break things when we’re broken and we fix things when we’re whole,

And we’ve finally lived long enough to look back.