Child in the driver's seat

I went to a party the other day. I drove there and back on the freeway all alone. I usually don't drive very far on my own. I felt so old for a moment. So grown up.

Then I felt like a toddler who got thrown into the driver's seat.

Senior year has finally come. I've been waiting for this since kindergarten.Now it's here and I'm so excited.

But every once and a while it hits be like a freight train.

The only life I've ever known will be over in less than a year.

My feelings on that change. Most of the time I'm so ready to get started on life. Sometimes I'm in shock. How am I going to survive on my own? How am I going to pick a good career and support myself and future family? What the heck is going on?

Those thoughts usually come during financial lit. 

Seventeen sounds old and young at the same time. College seems like forever away and tomorrow. High school only started and now it's ending.

How did that happen? Could someone explain that to me? I'm confused.

As soon as I hit my eighteenth birthday I'm an adult. But the only things in life that happen that sudden are earthquakes and snapping bones. So when do we become adults? When do we shed off the baby to become the child, the child to become the teenager, the teenager to become all grown up? Is it age? It is experience? A little bit of both? Some children become adults way to soon because of tragedy, war, illness. Some adults are still children and haven't learned anything since the day they enrolled in preschool.

Am I ready to be tossed into the real world in a moment? Can I deal with what gets throws at me without running to my mom? Will I be prepared to balance my own life? 

I like to think I will be.

But we'll have to

wait

and

see.