What Sixteen Means to You

"If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think its emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new."

GEORGE ELIOT, Middlemarch

I know we are getting ready to wrap up and leave Mullaby, but I was thinking about the magic wallpaper and began to wonder: If I had magic wallpaper in my room at sixteen what would it look like?

Sixteen is a pretty significant age in many cultures. We are given more freedom, responsibility, independence coupled with first jobs, bills and feeling self sufficient and capable of providing for ourselves.

But sixteen also brings with it first loves and heartaches, losing childhood friends and forming a closer social circle that will be the sole reason for our existence our high school career. And detachment from parents and learning how to go from child to young adult while establishing and maintaining new family boundaries.

With all of this going on, what would your magic wallpaper reflect to you?

I have thought about this, and when I was sixteen I just wanted to be accepted for who I was: a brand new Christian, who played Meat Loaf a little too loud, read constantly, loved imaginary places and preferred an old fashion view of the world. And when I couldn't take the pressure anymore, I would sit in my room and draw the same thing over and over again: A waterfall.

I drew it on book covers, homework assignments, tests, shopping lists and even myself. It calmed me down and reminded me that even if the world couldn't find value in who I was, I didn't care because I had the ability to create something so beautiful that represented a simpler way of living and thinking.

Waterfalls are not just beautiful, they are powerful. They can also be considered a scared or safe place. Somewhere a person can reconnect with nature and the elements.

My wallpaper would have been a waterfall scene. I wasn't trying to run from my burdens, I was strong and fluid enough to handle them. I just wanted a place to be safe and occasionally reminded that I could get through whatever was placed in my path. I was a force to reckon with.

And on that note, I think I should start drawing those waterfalls again. It is evident by this post that my sixteen year old self is ever present and trying to tell me something.

So, what's your wallpaper?