25 Jun 2017

You’re probably getting to the stage of the year where you’re expected to start growing up. You’ll begin to hear questions about when you’re going to get a ‘real’ job, or start a degree. The pressure’s on to figure it all out, to get your shit together and decide what you’re doing after you graduate. Maybe you’re looking forward to it all; the freedom and the independence. But even if it seems exciting, it’s probably equally terrifying. Either way, amongst all the advice you’re going to get this year, if you only listen to one thing, let it be this: enjoy right now.

Enjoy waking up, chucking on your uniform and having the structure of school. Enjoy being done by 3pm and having the whole afternoon to yourself. Enjoy sitting on the bus with your mates, talking about everything that happened during the day and laughing at all your inside jokes.

After graduation, things change whether you want it to or not. You drift from your friends, your schedule changes and things are different. And that’s not a bad thing. The next couple of years are going to be your first taste of independence and real freedom. But focus on that later, when you get to it.

Right now, focus on recess and lunch spent sitting on the fields in the sun. Focus on canteen trips where the only way to get someone to tag along is to promise to buy them something. Right now, you can spend the cash you make on the weekend from your shitty hospo or retail job on whatever you want without having to worry about paying electricity bills or mortgage repayments. You can kiss as many people as you want while you’re not married and tied down with three kids. You can spend all night texting your crush and spend the next day napping through Maths because you didn’t get any sleep. You can have late night conversations with your best friend at Maccas over chocolate sundaes and cheeseburgers and not stress about having to get up for work the next day.

Because when you get older you’re not going to be able to. You’re not going to be able to get knocked down at your local footy game and get back up and keep running. You won’t be able to get drunk, smash a kebab and wake up the next morning feeling fine. You’re not going to be able to spend nights driving around with your friend who just got their P’s or jump in the car and head to the beach just because you feel like it.

Growing up comes with responsibilities. It comes with pressure and bills and adult decisions. So enjoy right now, while you’re young and free and only just starting to get a taste of the big, wide world. Enjoy your teenage years. Growing up can wait.