As the year comes to a close, so does the decade.
Isn’t that crazy? The 2010’s will be over in less than a month, and we will begin a new journey. For most of us in college, the 2010’s will hold a special place in our hearts. I mean, it was an influential time in our lives. We went through elementary, high school, and part of college in just these ten years. We have grown, both physically and mentally, into who we are today. The children we were then are not the same as the adults we are now. The 2010s have been a huge learning curve for us, and while every decade will always teach you something, I feel like this one is special. We left our childhood – our innocence. Things we can never get back. Isn’t that crazy? I think it is.
As I look back on the last decade, I feel a lot of things. Regret? Most definitely. Pain? For sure. Embarrassment? All I need to do is take a look at 7th grade me. Most of all, though, I feel gratitude. For while I have gone through so much, all of that is instrumental to the woman I am today. Sure, I might not yet know everything I need to know, and I’m still unsure about things, but I’m a force to be reckoned with, a fire that can’t be put out, and I’m excited about it.
I’m excited about the people I am entering the new decade with, the philosophies I have picked up along the way, the numerous plans I want to achieve in the 20s, and so much more. I’m just so excited for my life, and what is yet to come.
However, I’m also sad, because I’m leaving a part of me behind in this decade. A part of me I can never get back, and that is my childhood. The art of being free, of minimal worries, and so much hope. So much love to give, and so many plans to imagine. Ignorance truly was bliss. I will miss the friends I left behind, the loves that faded out, the dreams that eventually died, and the hopes that were eventually lost. I’ll miss having no responsibilities on a Saturday night and just messing around with my friends and going on crazy adventures that, looking back on, weren’t so crazy after all. I’ll miss it all so much, but I also realize that all that has passed has served its purpose, and it’s time for new things, new places, and new dreams.
Maybe it will never be the same, and maybe that’s okay.
Goodbye 2010s. I’ll miss you, but you were well spent, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.