Stranger Than Fiction

It's strange.

This Saturday, I will be heading off to college. Granted, it's only twenty or so minutes down the road from home.

Still.

But going to college isn't the strange thing, per se. It's not separating from friends, which is sad; neither is it homesickness nor anxiety that has me in a peculiar twist.

It's the fact that I'm only eighteen.

I'm just eighteen years old, and really, I'm not even that since my birthday was just a few weeks ago. I'm just shy of still being seventeen, still being in high school, still being sheltered, and yet...

I feel like I'm ready to head out into the world. Heck, I feel like I'm ready to take the world by storm. Maybe it's idealism, or maybe it's my youth. I don't know.

Still.

I feel...ready. To become my own person, to live my life, my way. But for God's sake, I'm still a teenager!

I haven't driven. I haven't voted. I've never fallen into or out of romantic love. I've never riden a bike without a helmet, picked out constellations with friends, eaten a fish taco... and yet, here I go.

Here I feel.

And I'm only eighteen.

Don't you think it's strange?