Jessie Brimingham | Downtown Memphis, TN | Memphis Portrait Photographer

"Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve." - J.K. Rowling

"For as long as I could walk, I've been trying to escape my parents' loving grip and run as far from the nest as possible. I was one of those kids that had to wear a backpack leash while out of the house because I would dart off at any moment after anything that struck my curiosity. I always acted without consideration or hesitation; I thought that if I waited even a moment more, I would miss my chance. Time could never move fast enough. Growing up always seemed so appealing to younger me. I couldn't wait to be an adult; I hated the thought that it was so far in the future. I wanted to grow up then and there and start doing adult things like working and driving, living on my own and voting. I was constantly looking ahead, so busy worrying about making the future come faster. My parents told me to enjoy my childhood because it'd be gone before I knew it, but I didn't listen. I thought, 'How am I to enjoy myself when I have a whole life to live that can't start until I'm grown?' 

I really should have listened to my parents, I should have cherished being a kid--that was the chance I was missing. I'd love to go back, but it's too late now. I'm seventeen, I'm a senior in high school, and in five months I will graduate and begin the next chapter of my life. I'm not ready for it, and I'm not sure it's possible to be, but high school has taught me some things that I'm pretty sure will come in handy. I've learned that the time we have is all we get. The average human lifespan is somewhere between seventy to eighty years; according to society, we get eighteen of those to be a "kid," and for the rest of the approximately sixty-two years, we're told to be adults who worry about things like politics and taxes. We get less than 25% of our entire lives to be a kid; we shouldn't throw it away. I've learned that change is inevitable, and it's not as terrible as I once believed. While I may not be prepared for whatever is coming, life can still throw everything it's got at me and I'm gonna roll with it.

I'm not 100% on my plans after graduating, but I'm pretty certain that changing the world is going to be involved."