Splinters

I'm getting old. I'm annoyed by eight-year-olds and loved by adults. It used to be the other way around, I swear. 

I'm afraid I've started giving up on my ambition, and when my mom asks me what I'm going to do with my life I can't seem to remember my 10 year plan. That plan I've had for years where I travel and find myself and if I'm lucky, fall in love. All I can think of to say is something about ending up alone and with 20 cats, because they're better friends than people.

 I eat raw fish, which is something only sophisticated people do. And those pretending to be civilized. I get annoyed by the music on the radio, and the other day I caught myself calling it "noise."

I have chronic migraines. I'm protective. I'm scared.  I stay home on Saturday nights. I use big words. My hair is changing color, and I refuse to dye it. I'm afraid to use the word love, because I don't want to lie. I watch movies for their cinematography.

My mom is on the phone until 5 in the morning, and I eat dinner at 4.

I sat down to write about how I'm losing my innocence. I sat down to write about the process of aging, but here's the catch: I'm still so young. I giggle at health class lingo. I stutter when I'm talking to a cute boy... I still use the phrase "cute boy." As hard as I try, I still don't like Raisin Bran.  I want to show off my A on the latest calculus test, but I still have to think twice about how to spell calculous. The thought of choosing a major scares me half to death. I tell people I love them, even when I don't. I still want to cry every time I don't get asked to a dance. Part of me still believes I can be an astronaut. I laugh really loud. I play music even louder. And I want desperately to be pretty.

I'm young at heart, but old at mind.