A Full Frame

When I was young, my mom bought a frame with 13 different slots for 13 different pictures.

Each picture would correspond to a year, a grade level. One for every year from kindergarten to 12th grade.

I've passed the frame every day for probably the last 10 years. I can remember looking at it with only 4 or 5 pictures in and thinking about how crazy it would be when all 13 pictures were in their spots. I thought the day would never come.

Because when you're living, sometimes the days seem to drag on, and you age so slowly that it doesn't even seem like your appearance is changing at all. But when you stop and compare the pictures, it's crazy how much your appearance changes even from one year to the next.

And it's crazy when you think back and realize that the days that seem to go so slow in the "here" really go fast.

Some days it seems like going to college, getting a real job, getting married, or having kids is just SO far off and that it will never come.

But then I think about how I never thought the day would come when the frame would be full and I would be graduating high school. It's just a reminder to me that different seasons of life go by so fast and that you have to live each day or one day you'll wake up and wonder where the last 20 years went.

This frame may just look like an ordinary one filled with 13 different pictures. But to me, it's a reminder of years gone by and memories I'll never forget.

And I can't believe the frame is already filled! Oh how I've changed so much over the past 12 years......