This past week was my 19th birthday (cue the applause). But that's not the point of this article.

From one day to the next, I was a year older. For most of us our reaction to that, is like "So what?". But when I woke up that morning, I felt older. I was hit was the sudden realization that I'm not a little kid anymore. My birthdays would forever be a different experience than what I've come to expect. My mom wasn't there with my birthday breakfast. I didn't hear my brother's little voice screaming "Happy Birthday". My oldest brother had to use 15 merits to even call me that day. This isn't to say that my friends didn't spoil me with hugs and "Happy Birthdays", it just was different. My entire life I've skipped school on my birthday to do something "fun". This year was spent in back to back classes and working. And it's just the beginning. For the rest of my life, birthdays will be spent in this fashion.

Along with my birthday was going to my first "adult" doctor. No longer am I waiting along with the children waiting to be seen. It SUCKED. At my pediatrician's office, there are toys and televisions playing children's cartoons. At this doctor was absolute silence and a bunch of magazines. Not even good magazines at that. It amazes me how I've always filled out the paperwork in my family cause I thought it was fun... Well, it's not so fun when you HAVE to do it. I'm used to looking to my mom for the discreet nod that assures me that I'm saying the right things. She wasn't there. I was alone in this stranger's office, being asked questions that I wasn't really sure how to answer. And I didn't even get a lollipop for being good.

My generation and those younger than me try so hard to grow up before we need to. Last week, I was at a basketball game and the 8 year old girls in front of me had i-phones. I walk past my old elementary school to hear kids screaming and cursing on the corner. I don't understand it. Being an adult sucks.

Here's some tips for those kids trying so hard to be an adult.

TAKE NAPS - Sleep is a commodity when you're older. In college especially, your nights are filled with writing essays, doing forgotten homework, and studying for tests that seem to occur every week.

DON'T STRESS PEOPLE WHO DON'T STRESS YOU - Don't worry about what people think or say about you. And please, don't kill yourself taking care of people who couldn't care less about you. You're gonna wake up one day and realize that you wasted time on people who you probably won't recognize in ten years.

EXPRESS YOURSELF -Have you ever heard the phrase "Dance like nobody's watching?" Do it. Draw, paint, sing, dance, wear makeup, do it ALL. Don't let anyone or anything stifle YOU.

TELL PEOPLE YOU LOVE THEM - By people, I mean your family. Tell whoever it is that keeps the roof over your head and the food in your mouth that you love them. It takes less than a second for you to lose someone who is your world.

DON'T GO TO BED ANGRY - This goes along with the point above this. In less than a second, you could lose everything. Don't go to bed angry about something that won't matter the next morning.

YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL - It's self explanatory. Don't let anyone tell you differently. DO NOT change yourself to meet society's standards, it's society that needs to change itself. You're beautiful. End of conversation.

These are some of the things I wish people told me and it's what I've learned and will pass on to you.