A few days ago I met up with my friends from high school before I went back to college. I saw my friends David and Brian, my David’s parents, and his wife Avi. I usually went up to see them once over my break but this time was different. I pulled into his driveway and he let me in, I walked into the living room where everyone was watching a movie and talking, then I turned to see my friends daughter sitting in her newborn seat as it rocked back and forth.

Avi had her a few months ago so she was still really small, her hand barely wrapped around my finger as she gripped onto it. David walked over, picking her up out of her seat, and I watched as he swung back in forth with her in his arms. For a moment I was so entranced, I looked back at the two of them and thinking that they had made this person. I had known the two of them when they first started dating, and now he held a child in his arms that the two of them had made together.

It felt so unreal to think about how long I had known them, and how I had witnessed them go through different stages of their lives together. I’ve known him for years, and seeing him holding that baby in his hands made me realize how real my life is. Often I think about adulthood as some mystical event that will happen in the distant future. I picture me living in some one person apartment by myself as some mystical fantasy world in my head that I will never see. That I’ll grow up and live by myself with only myself to rely on.

After a while my friend brought out his polaroid camera and took a picture of me with the baby, and glued it into a little notebook he had. He explained how it was a scrapbook for his daughter, every time they did something with her, or she met someone new, he would take a picture and glue it in the book. Every picture had a paragraph on what happened that day, who she met. It was so wholesome to see how involved they were with their lives and invested they were in their family. It felt like something you would only see in a movie.

It felt amazing to know that I had been documented in a way. I had been written down and recorded as a part of their lives, and I felt honored to be included. I had known David for years, he had been with me through some rough times and always stood up for me. I will always remember what he did for me and how he helped me, and as I held his daughter I want to do the same for him. I want to help him and Avi however I can, the same way he helped me.

Seeing my friend hold his daughter made me realize how everything has been changing around me, and how people are growing up alongside me. I could see it on both of their faces, I saw how happy they were together and for some reason it made everything feel better. It made me happy to look at them and be able to see how happy they were, and that I know that they will grow up to be a happy loving family.