What is it like to be 17 years old?

A year after your “sweet 16” and a year before being considered an “adult,” seventeen. The age that seems somewhat awkward and useless, but what everyone desires to experience.

Being seventeen isn’t like the front cover of the magazine, Seventeen, but more like feeling you’re on top of the world but you look down and you’re standing on the tip of a cliff.

The age is thrilling, nerve racking, adventurous and your free time seems to be minimized.

That time gives teenagers the opportunity to think. Think about yourself, consider your future paths and what sets the fire off in your soul.

For me personally, I see this age to be an age of anticipation, what journey my peers and I will take in our later years and how we’ll end up there.

Fortunately, I’m not the only one who has felt this way. ISJW camp counselor Seth Roberts reflected on his time of being seventeen, “When I was seventeen I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was applying to schools, I ended up applying to twenty-one different schools but really only wanted to go to about three of them.”

This age is the last step before adulthood, the last year of being considered a “child.” Although, seventeen year olds still feel youthful, obligations to make adult-like decisions run up and slap us in the face.

“Even though you’re still a teenager it’s time to grow up and start looking towards your future, it’s okay to have fun but it’s also important that you start to realize that the rest of your life is coming around the corner,” Publication Leadership Academy camper Bri Governale said.

The best way to describe the age of seventeen is by comparing it to middle school. In middle school, students are no longer in elementary and about to be a young adult in high school. There is an idea of what students want to be involved in and what is expected of them, and overall,  mindset is what really impacts an individual’s future.

Seventeen holds the power of the transition from being child-like to grown and prepared. It’s the year to be fearful of what can happen, but most importantly, excited for what opportunities will come along.

So pick up your toys, kids, adulthood seems closer than it appears.

This is a picture of me on the Santa Monica beach, a true example of feeling on top of the world.