Today marks the last official day of my childhood (well, technically speaking). The big 1-8 has arrived and it shall surley come and claim me for adulthood as I blow out candles and unwrap packages for the 18th time in my life tomorow. I don't suppose much will change; I dont expcet to look or feel any older and it would be silly of me to expect to. But there is something in me that can't help but get a little sentimental at the thought of a "childhood coming to a close." The era of fairies, and tea parties, and magic.....coming to an end? I don't think 18 is a powerful enough number to do the job. Like, don't mess around with tea parties adulthood, okay? Obviously, the last few teenage years of my life haven't been as filled with magic and fairies (that's not an acceptable teenage thing apparently), but I would still consider all these teenage years I've expirenced thus far to be pretty magical (even as dramatic and emotional as they might be). I have learned a lot and I know I have a lot more to learn. And I feel sure that there will still be lots of magic waiting for me on the other side of 18. Here are just a few little magical things my childhood taught me:

Really really really: you can be whatever you set your mind to. When I was 3 my favorite movie was Peter Pan. I loved it so much that I actually wanted to be Peter Pan himself. Like, real bad. So every morning I put on my Peter Pan costume and tromped down stairs and refused to speak until I was greeted properly with a "Goodmorning Peter Pan!" I had my family, my teachers, and my friends calling me Peter Pan. Obviosuly, I was not literally Peter Pan, I was a 3 year old little girl, but the point is that I believed in myself as Peter Pan and I got others too as well and it was awesome. All things are possible when you set your mind to somehting. Heck, apparently you can even become a fictional cartoon character.

Nothing is ever as big as it seems. It was true when I was little and it is true now. Whatever it was that I tended to worry about when I was little seemed to melt away instantly as soon as went out back to play in the yard, or to talk to a friend at school. There is magic in the little things: like the outdoors and the people around us. They help us not to feel so little and are there to remind us to take a chill pill or to go swing on the swings or something.

Honesty is the best policy. Lies were never tolerated in my house growing up and boy did I ever know that. The guilt hit me like a train as soon as I let a white lie slip as a child. It seems that we tend to lose that sense of guilt or blame as we grow older but we should fight to hang onto that childlike innocence. Being honest with myself and others has saved me countless times and although I hated the way other kids could get away with things while I could never refuse to turn myself in as a child, I know that honesty is my friend and that it brings peace and joy.

The people who love you are almost always right. My family was right: there was never an alien living behind my bed as I had once deeply feared in 1st grade (but thats a whole nother story...) I find that as much as I sometime dislike it and don't want to hear it, those who have our best interest at heart are the ones that we must trust and go to advice for. 18 years later and a weepy late night conversation with a loved one has never done me wrong, only made me better.

There are still magic and fairies everywhere if you look. I believed most firmly in the magic of fairies for most of my childhood and although I no longer see them out dancing in the garden as I might have once claimed, I see them in all sorts of new places these days. Magic too. I see it in the face around me everyday, I feel it in prayer, I hear it in the voices of those singing me happy birthday, and taste it in my birthday cake. It's glowing brightly and fiercely on the top of a candle and inside my 18 year old "adult" heart.