I have decided something. There are moments in life when everything seems so clear. When it all just looks so blatently obvious, you wonder how you could have ever missed it. I'm a growup. That may sound very childlike, but, there we have it. And so, taking that into account, I have decided to take into perspective the events and decicisions in my life that have brought me to where I am today. First, there have been times I have been the one to screw everything up. Other times it was someone else. As of right now, I am taking it on my shoulders, and am apologizing. This is not a request for forgiveness, don't get me wrong. I would just like to apologize to those that have been hurt by me. And perhaps I am asking that the wrongs be, well, not forgotten, but viewed as what they were- childish. We are adults. Some of us with new things, better things, very different things, coming into our lives. I say to that, good. For our lives are changing everyday, and though we may look back on who we were and what happened and feel resentment and anger, I hope there are times when we look back and see how much fun and happiness there was too. I was looking through photographs the other day, and couldn't help but laugh. The things we used to do and the way we used to play makes me smile. I realize now that we are so different from the people we used to be. Changes are often so big, we don't even realize what has changed in such short of time. I have set aside my issues with the past, and am now looking for a new life. I hope that perhaps we all may speak to eachother in sort of the way we used to, but that may not be the case. I often feel so much older, and like I have lived so many years in many different lives. But now I see that it is what we call 'growing up'. You can change so many times, in so many ways, that you can't grasp the way you used to see the world. I miss that actually. When everything seemed new and exciting, when now the things that used to seem fun just bore you to death. In part, this letter is a farewell to youth, to the person I was before. Also, this letter is a greeting to the adult, the future me I will become- am already, and becoming all at the same time. It is sad really, to know that some places you have gone can never be revisited. It's like the Beatles song, 'In my Life'. But that is the way life is, when things change and things are no longer what you remember them being. And so, with this, I am saying I love you, to the sixteen year old me, to the friends I have had, to the people I have known. In all your special little ways that make you 'you', you will always be my friends, my confidantes, my sisters, my brothers, and of course, the people who helped me become me. I hope you know that you will never be forgotten, throw into a box of photos never to be seen, or not thought of as the friends you really were to me. For you will always be in my heart, reminisced about often, even if it's just me to remember you, and of course, spoken of not as 'people I once knew', but as my friend, as though we still chat on the phone for three hours a day. To all of you, I say good luck in the future, and take care in all you do. Your once and again friend, Laura Michelle*