Growing up

It's an odd thing...getting older. leaving childish toys and literature to be a part of your past. It's an odd thing to think that once you could be entertained with dolls and toy cars. Now, while maturing, you find yourself being entertained by going to the movies with friends, playing sports and your days are filled with school. 
Work that was once the abc's is now the Illiad. Your thoughts are deeper and your actions have more resposibility behind them then they used to. An apology can't always clean the damage you have inflicted on the people you are close to anymore or as simply as it had in your young past. Your innocent, meaningless crushes have a different reality to them now. 
Responsibility is the main thing you must have as you mature into an adult. the change that takes place is quick. surprisingly quick. It seems that one moment you are 13 and the next you are 18, entering your adult life. Responsibity. How does that look? is that different than the responsibility that your parents taught you to have with your puppy or your dirty laundry? In a lot of ways, yes. But in some ways no. It's the idea of responsibility that has not changed. that will never change, no matter your age. But the ways in which we must be responsible. that is what changes. Our school work. How drastically different is our 3rd grade homework versus our college mid terms. Our study habits have become our own. We no longer need our parents to make us do our homework. we do it on our own. Our friendships. responsibility. we are responsible now to treat our friends well. not because if we dont our parents or teachers will force us to make amends. But because we understand the blessing of a friend. we understand that, as God's people, we are to treat people we know with kindness and love. 
Our relationships have changed with boys. Those boys who we used to play with during recess are now some of our best friends. And resposibility comes with how we like a guy. How do we begin a relationship with a guy? Responsibility. We must understand why and how we are to date as a follower of Christ. In seventh grade, the only thing that mattered was if the guy you liked smiled at you or flirted with you. 
Growing up changes everything. It changes your view on life. The blessing that God has given you. Those people who are in your life have a purpose. You realize this as you grow older. You begin to understand that friends are not just there to have play dates with but to help you when times are hard or to celebrate when times are good. To pray for and with. To be there for. To learn from. To teach. Growing up is an exciting thing.
As I grow up, i feel these changes. I notice that everything that i have been given is a blessing. I thank God for my life and those in it. There are times, though, that i am afraid. Can I be an adult? Am I a strong enough person to deal with the struggles of adulthood? But, then I am reminded that I am not growing up on my own. Not only do I have these friends and family around me, protecting me, but I have My creator watching out for me. And when I begin to tremble with thoughts of my future, of growing up and leaving my young self behind, God stills me like he stills the storm. He has my life planned out and it is my job to trust him. I have been blessed to grow up. And I and prepared to continue to grow up, even when i am scared.

Just a Dance

As I laid in bed thinking about the previous week, I could not help but smile. I had had a great week, hanging out with a guy who was so cool! This week had been the best week ever. My sister looked over at me and I quickly hid my smile. 


“Did you have a good week?” she asked. 
“yeah, it was good.” I smiled. “How was your week?” 
“it was so much fun kate! You must come with me next year!” 
“sounds good to me!” I rolled over and was immersed in my thoughts again. 

My sister was a year older than I was. At 17, she was the most beautiful and humble girl I knew. She was my best friend; my other half. I told her everything. Everything, that is, but details about last week. I felt weird telling her of my life and my guy situations, because her stories seemed so much more interesting and relevant. 
She and I had similar temperaments but we looked very different. She was tall with long, brown hair. Her eyes were a stunning blue. I was shorter than her and had short blondish-brown hair. My eyes were green, but not that beautiful green, just green. My family always told me how pretty I was, and I appreciated it, but I knew that I’d never be as pretty as Isabelle. Her name is even beautiful! Don’t get me wrong, my name is fine. I have decided it fits me well. 
“Katelyn” I said to myself. 
“What, Kate?” questioned my half-asleep sister. 
“Oh…nothing” oops…I didn’t mean to say that out loud. 
I glanced at her half of the room. It was clean and orderly. My half “seemed” clean, but there were socks hanging out of my drawers and books askew on my shelves. I forced myself to sleep. Spring break was over. I needed to be ready for school tomorrow. 
“BEEP BEEP” Sigh….school….I sat up and put my glasses on. Oh yeah, I wear glasses. My sister needs them too, but wears contacts. I don’t because it’s too much of a hassle. Belle glided into the room. She was ready for the day, as usual, before me. I hopped in the shower and when I got out, I smelled the sweet aroma of cinnamon rolls. I really appreciate and love my mom. She always has delicious food for us. We never have to say anything, its just there for us, before were even hungry. I flung on some hand-me-downs, which were cute, but that’s just because they were my sister’s. 
“Good morning, Hun.” My parents said in unison. 
“Are you going to ride with Belle, today?” My mom asked. 
“Mom….don’t I always ride with her?” I stated sarcastically, with a smile. She laughed. 
I loved riding with my sister. We talk about anything, listen to music and laughed together. I looked at her and she smiled her beautiful, loving smile at me. I returned the smile. We hopped in the car after saying goodbye to our parents and drove off. These fifteen minutes might be one of my favorite things ever! It was a quiet ride, today, however, and my mind kept returning to his face. It made me smile. 

“RING” I jumped as the lunch bell went off. The first half of the day swam by and I had to pull myself out of spring break mode. I was eating with my friends when, he walked into the lunchroom! I started choking on my water. How’d I know I’d do something like that? He looked over and smiled. I tried to return the smile but failed. He laughed his sweet sounding laugh and walked on. 
“Oh my gosh! He totally just smiled at you!” Jessica exclaimed quite loudly, louder than I would have liked. 
“Yeah, so?” I asked. I was doing everything in my power not to reveal my frenzy. 
“Um…Hello?! That was Tucker Morris!!” 
“Your right. It is.” I smiled sarcastically. 
My friends had always had crushes on him and made it obvious. I hadn’t liked him until recently. And, I was not about to freak out that he looked at me.I glanced over at where he was sitting to find that he was looking at me. He was looking at me with respect, which I was surprised about and kind of liked. He looked at my friends, who were still excitedly talking about him and we shared a quick laugh. He returned back to his friends and me to my pudding. The rest of the day flew by and soon enough I was waiting by my sister’s car. She came out of the building looking as vibrant as ever. She gave me a huge smile and hopped in the car. She had a new crush. I could tell. I laughed. 
“What?” she said. She knew why I had laughed, though. “So there’s this guy…” 
I laughed again. “I know. Who is it?” 
“Ok, you can’t laugh, he’s kind of popular….But really nice!” 
“Who…?” I repeated. 
“Tucker….Morris….” She looked embarrassed and ecstatic at the same time. 
“I’ve liked him for awhile but I have finally told my friends and they think I should call him.” 
I felt a wave of heat and cold run over me, but kept composed. I forced a smile and acted supportive. 
“Whew! I am so glad u are behind my back!” I hadn’t seen her, this happy, in awhile. 
I got home and went straight to my room. Sometimes it doesn’t help that we share a room. Luckily though she was headed to her friend’s house tonight to study. She left about 10 minutes after we got home and I finally had the house to myself. Mom and dad wouldn’t get home for another hour. 
My emotions were on a rollercoaster. I would not let myself cry, though. I mean, we weren’t dating. It was simply us hanging out, no big deal, right? I half knew he wasn’t interested in me, that we were just friends, but it’s hard not to like a sweet, funny, nice guy. I laughed at myself. The hour went by and I managed to finish my homework. I heard the garage door open and put a believable “happy” face on. I greeted my parents and watched as my mom hurried to start dinner and my dad sat down to read the newspaper. I went back to my room. Belle got home 20 minutes later and by this point, I had decided it wasn’t her fault he liked her. She was just too beautiful. Plus, she didn’t know that he and I had hung out all spring break helping at the animal shelter. She had been in Mexico! When she came into our room, however, she was not her happy, perky self that she had been after school. She was sad. And, she wasn’t nearly as good at hiding her true feelings as I was. 
“What’s wrong, Belle?” I asked. 
“Um….Sophie and I found out that Tucker is interested in someone already, so, he’s not available.” 
I was a little dumbfounded at how sad she could be after only liking him for a few days. But, when she was sad, it made me sad. I ran and gave her a hug and we sat and talked about it until the subject ran dry. I didn’t really care who this other girl was that he was interested in, I just wanted my sister to be happy. At the end of the discussion we had decided that he was still a cool guy and was just unavailable. We ate dinner in a content mood and went to bed as sisters and best friends rather than rivals, for a guy. 
I was well aware that the dance was coming up this weekend. You couldn’t NOT know. The halls were filled with brightly colored posters, exclaiming the coming excitement. I hadn’t been asked to go by anyone; my sister had had about 4 offers. But she had made it very clear though that she wanted to go with me. After a long discussion, I talked her into going with one of those guys because I just wanted to stay home and read. My computer had crashed about a month ago and I had started reading a lot. I wanted to finish my book this weekend and start another one. I was actually a bit surprised at how content I was with staying home and relaxing, rather than going to the dance. 
The day came and I was overjoyed to help my sister get ready for the night. At 6, a guy named Ben, came and picked her up. Apparently they were going to dinner with a group before the dance. 
I put my sweats on, made cookies from the cookie dough my mom left me, thanks mom, and started reading. It was nice and quiet. My parents had gone to dinner and a movie, I was relaxed. 

“DING DONG” Hmmm….that’s weird. 
I answered the door to find Tucker standing there with a small handful of flowers. He wasn’t wearing a suit or a tux. He was wearing jeans and a hoody.
“Hey, Kate.” He smiled. His voice was my favorite sound, ever. 
I wasn’t sure what to say so I just replied with, “hello”. 
“I have sent you, like, 15 emails. I bumped into your sister downtown and she told me that your computer has been busted, and I figured that explained it.” He laughed again. I had butterflies now. “Anyway she also told me that you weren’t going to the dance, and she sent me over here. She also says to tell you…um….the froggie jumps into the pond…?” His confused look was cute. I laughed. 
The froggie jumps into the pond was a phrase that my sister and I came up with when we were 8 and 9. It basically means “He’s all yours”. Im not sure why were use that phrase still, but it works well. 
“Why are you here and not at the dance? I asked suspiciously and hopefully. 

“Why do u think?” He smiled his sweet smile and grabbed my hand. 

The End.