Realization

I was driving alone in my car tonight. The moon is nearly full and the leaves are nearly at the peak of their color for the season. It was beautiful out, and I could smell the sharp and smokey smell of chilly fall air. Suddenly I was flooded with a thousand memories of being outside in the night time. I remembered camp fires, sledding by the star light, intense games of hide and seek, tag and the like, long walks with my best friend, and spending hours staring into the sky wondering about countless mysteries.

Suddenly I realized something, everything I remember is a memory from my childhood. I an eighteen, and I just started college. I'm on the edge of a new season in my life. I saw myself for a minute, walking through the snow at nine years old, riding horses beneath the moon at twelve, climbing a watertower at fourteen, sitting on the stoop of a camp cabin at 16, and driving home towards too much homework at 18. It's not like I suddenly became a man, or like I have left childhood behind altogether, I just realized that I am actively living out the the tail end of what will be my childhood memories.

I've often heard people talking about "when I was a kid..." and "I remember when I was a teenager..." well, that's all I have.