As you grow older,
things whither and bloom,
they shrink and they grow.
The ride becomes crazy
as the journey thickens-
and it's hard
to keep looking ahead.

At age 16
i still don't know much,
but i know what i use to believe
and i see what was wrong
with what i thought was so right.
For instance:

I had a love
I thought would always be around.
Yet-
where is he now?
I wrote poems of how adults were
wrong;
that our love was different,
years from then i would reread
them
and know that i was right.
Yet here i am,
not even a few yrs later,
where is that love
i said i would keep tight?

I use to declare
that i'm going to leave town,
that someday i would never come
back...
but now my eyes are wider
and i can't help but wonder,
do i really want to leave
everything i know behind?

I use to do nothing
but look forward to college life,
searching and wondering
what i would do with my future.
And now i'm afraid and filled with
this sickening fear:
Where will i direct my path...
will i fail?

I once had courage,
I once had inspiration,
I once knew where i was going.
But that all changes
when you begin to change.
When you start to grow,
so does life around you:
Things begin to whither and bloom,
they shrink and they grow-
The ride gets crazy as the journey
thickens.
But that's okay.

Because there is no way to grow,
without the movement to stretch.
There is no way to fly,
without a sky available for soar.
There is no way to laugh,
without nothing there to smile at.
There is no way to overcome fear,
without truly desiring it.