you wake up one day and realize that so much of your life has already happened.
there are people you once spoke to every day who are now strangers.
places that once felt like home that you haven’t seen in years.
songs that can take you back to a version of yourself you almost forgot existed.
there are friendships you thought would last forever.
people you loved in ways you no longer know how to explain.
and moments you didn’t realize were the last time until they became memories.
life has a strange way of moving forward without asking us if we’re ready.
we grow.
we change.
we leave things behind.
sometimes because we want to.
sometimes because we have to.
and sometimes simply because life takes us in different directions.
i think about all the versions of myself i’ve been.
the girl who had different dreams.
the girl who trusted differently.
the girl who thought certain people would always be there.
the girl who didn’t know yet how much life was going to change her.
i don’t miss all of them.
but i am grateful for all of them.
because every version of me carried something into the next.
a lesson.
a scar.
a little more courage.
a softer heart.
a better understanding of what i want — and what i don’t.
and maybe that’s the beautiful part.
we don’t really lose the people or the versions of ourselves we’ve left behind.
they become little pieces of the person we are now.
sometimes i wish i could go back.
not because i want to change anything, but because i would like to tell some of those moments:
you don’t know it yet, but you’re going to miss this.
so now, i’m trying to stay.
really stay.
in the conversations.
in the ordinary mornings.
in the people i love.
in the life i’m living right now.
because one day, this will be the past too.
and i hope when i look back, i won’t only remember the things that ended.
i’ll remember how beautiful it was to be there while they were still happening.
A.S.
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