Sometimes I wish I could just sail away. But running away doesn’t solve anything. Struggle brings experience.

I remember middle school. Life was simple then.

I often wonder if it would be better to live our entire lives in a state of childhood. Things weren’t as complicated, no responsibility, no real concerns. No, that wouldn’t work. As much pain as theses teenage years bring us, I have found they also carry a substantial amount of joy. And some of that joy is derived from truly experiencing real pain for the first time. I’ve grown so much in the past five or so years. It was through these pain filled teenage years that I really learned how to love. I’ve broken hearts and had mine broken as well. I’ve shed tears of joy and of sorrow. I’ve experienced loss, and gained experience. These years have shown me the joy of making love in a back seat, of living like mad, and smoking cigarettes just to pass the time.

As cynical as I’ve been lately, and as much as I say I hate high school, I can really say that if there is only one thing that I regret, it’s that as mad as I’ve lived, I could have lived madder. And when I say mad, I mean mad as in crazy and exuberant, full of a thirst for life, or as a great man once put it, filled with“the fever”.

Life is beautiful, and it’s the sorrow and the suffering that adds to the beauty.