Hey, hobbits.

I know I’ve been gone a lot.  ACT prep stole my time.  (I’m still looking for a place to lodge a complaint.)

I think the original idea was for me to take the ACT once.  Something happened to that, ’cause I just took it for the third time.  The third time.  Opening my fancy scientific calculator again was a weird feeling.  It was a little bit like a reunion with an old friend, and a little bit like running into your arch enemy when you thought he fell off a cliff in the last episode.

The Seventh Short Story also kinda’ fell off the bus.  Did you miss him?  We’ll see if he comes back.

Anyway, I turned eighteen last week.  Eighteen.

I keep looking in the mirror and saying, “You’re eighteen,” but I still don’t buy it.  I don’t look or feel like an adult.

“They told us that time flies, didn’t know what it means
Now I feel like we’re just running around trying to catch it and hoping to cut up its wings”

-“Lost in the Moment” by NF

Sometimes I think I was smarter when I was younger.  Like I’m growing backwards, and getting dumber.

Maybe that’s true.  But my heart’s in a better place now.  I’m not as selfish as I was when I was little, and I’m better at loving people, and at loving Jesus.

At the end of the day, that stuff’s more important.

So I guess I’m excited to grow up.  I’m excited to see where this year takes me.  I want to keep sharing my weird brain with you all, even when my life gets busy, so I’ll keep trying to do that too.

Thanks for reading.