Monday with Ms. Marvel: turning sixteen

In+her+weekly+column%2C+Monday+with+Ms.+Marvel%2C+Wingspans+Trisha+Dasgupta+reviews+different+political+issues+and+relatable+topics+in+everyday+life.

Morgan Kong

In her weekly column, Monday with Ms. Marvel, Wingspan’s Trisha Dasgupta reviews different political issues and relatable topics in everyday life.

Trisha Dasgupta, Staff Reporter

I don’t know if it’s just me, but as the days I’ve spent at home keep adding up I can’t stop thinking about how I only have two more years until I’m off to college. Two more years, which means that there’s only two more Homecomings, two more winter breaks, and two more summers between me and the rest of my life. 

It’s so strange because I’m turning 16 next month, and I feel like I’ve been dreaming about this time of life forever. I’ve been obsessed with having a Sweet Sixteen, getting my driver’s license, all of the things that come with growing up, ever since 7-year-old me watched the Disney Channel movie Sixteen Wishes and saw the seemingly magical life of a 16-year-old girl. 

I’m not getting my Sweet Sixteen anymore, but I’ll probably still get to take my driver’s license test and believe me, if I pass the test the morning of my birthday I’ll be more than fine with missing out on my party. 

I guess it was the desire to have more freedoms that made me so eager to grow older, but now, I can’t help but think I’ve missed out on the last couple years of high school because I was in such a rush to grow up. 

I keep thinking about all of freshman year and the first semester of sophomore year, and all I remember are all those times I wished I was older and able to drive and do all the things I wanted to do instead of just cherishing the present. 

I’ve treated so much of my life as a transitory period, constantly promising myself that if I just get through this stage, I’ll move on to greater things. I spent middle school wishing to be in high school, the first two years of high school wishing to be able to drive, and I’m sure that if I don’t stop, I’ll waste the next two years waiting for college, and then college waiting for law school. 

All good things come in due time, I’m finally realizing that wishing for the future while ignoring the present isn’t a productive way to live your life, and I hope that I actually start to live by that. 

I’m not saying that I’m going to stop planning for the future, because I’m going to keep setting goals and working on reaching them. But I am going to make sure that I don’t waste being 16 by wishing I was 17, and I’m going to start trying to enjoy my life as it is, and not save my happiness for another time, somewhere in the future.