As humans, we are ever-changing - constantly going through metamorphosis and creating our lives that are stepping stones of glass, containing certain memories and lessons from eras in our lifetime where we have exemplified tremendous growth.
If you are not changing, you are not living. I don't always want to be stagnant, and the same person I was yesterday, nor do I want to be the same person I was three years ago. I want to be continuously shedding layers of the old self and blossoming into someone who is healthier, more intelligent and stronger.
Newness draws me in, and the idea of starting over every day is a story so perfect I'd love to recreate. There are several million pieces of land my feet have not walked, hopped, skipped and run on, and there are many seas, oceans, lakes and open bodies of water I have yet to swim, fish, dive and jump into. The list of lessons I have yet to learn is nearly endless, although my eighteen-year-old self has already picked up on hundreds, if not thousands.
This world has given me countless opportunities, and every day is a new set of experiences. I am currently transitioning into a new Carly - one that craves a new home: college. Next fall when I first receive my room key and make my way up to my dorm room, I will fumble with the key, turn the knob and unlock the door to a new lifestyle. A new floor. Four new walls. A new bathroom. A new sink. A new shower. A new bed. A new window. A new view.
That very moment will be the start of something that currently seems so far away, but will soon consume the next four years of my life, taking up my thoughts, my pastimes, my dreams and my time.
I will be talking to new people, and will come across different personality types - some so different, and some so similar to mine, the stars in the sky could not even imagine a variety so strong. Talking to new people is one of my favorite gifts I have been given in this world: I will hear their trials and tribulations, their fears and discomforts, their reasons for their sadness and signs of weakness, their goals and dreams, their reasons for their happiness, how they think about themselves, how they think about others, how they have the ability change their lives, and how they have the ability to change mine.
These changes are only grains of sand, and together, with my future classmates, we will create a beach. The beach, of course, will not be a destination one might dream of in the night. It will be a beach with shattered glass, filth and sharp rocks - all of which represent our pasts, our hurts and what brought us to Manchester in that moment. Although the beach will not be perfect, it will also be covered with patches of grass, grass that exemplifies birth and growth up to that moment. There will also be sea shells, shells that are found along the shore, gifts from our past that we hold dear to us when a tidal wave comes along the coast and sweeps us up with it.
The weights we have carried on our shoulders for the past eighteen years will be no more; the tears we have shed from old breakups and outdated friendships will disappear into a closet, one that is not accessible to us anymore. For the only key we will have is our new room key - the one that will unlock a room that is soon to be filled with friends, smiles, tears, messes, stresses, aches, pains, worries, joys, fears, loves, laughter, learning and change.