Mom and Dad-

Sooner or later you're going to have to realize that I am not a little kid anymore. I will be 18 years old in 4 days!! I'm leaving for college in less than 2 months! You can't keep treating me like I'm 14 years old, I'm not. You said that I need to "Mature more than you think you already have." Well college is what is going to do that to me. But right now, I am a high school graduate enjoying my last summer with all of the friends I have grown up with and I want to cherish every single second I still have with them. Don't you owe that to me? Shouldn't I get a little bit of reward after all of my hard work? I graduated from school, I got accepted to a good college, I'm on my way to becoming a teacher, I have more direction in life than over half the people we know, I go to church every Sunday, I love God and yet you still don't trust me. I have spent almost my whole life being compared to my older siblings who have basically amounted to nothing, and even when I am doing about ten billion times better than they are, you still judge me with criticism I do not deserve.

Aren't you proud of me? Aren't you excited for me to start my life? Don't you want me to treasure the time I have left with my best friends before I go off into a completely different world? Yes, this seems so melodramatic, but it's all true.

This is a strange point in my life for all of us, and I understand that. But I don't understand why you insist that I don't need to be with my friends when I have the chance! I work all the time and when I'm not working I'm bored out of my mind wasting time doing absolutely nothing. Shouldn't I be out enjoying what's left of my summer? Why do you have to still be so controlling? My older siblings had more freedom than I do and they were holy terrors! It's ridiculous that you hold different standards for me when I'm ten times as good of a kid than they were. I don't say that to sound cocky, I say it because it's true and we all know it. I love you both, but you can't hold on to me forever. It's time for you to let me go. I'm calling it. Make the choice, let me live my life.

- your daughter.

Current Mood: frustrated