Nineteen

And I would be twenty in a month with the confidence that I had the world to explore. I could see the horizon out in the beyond and time was most assuredly my ally. It was a time of opportunities ripe for expanding my imagination and unfurling my wings. Youth was this verdant time of potential and I felt like a magician's apprentice. I remember the sun and how it shone on my shoulders, how it would make everything glitter around and about me. But mostly I remember how I'd look up and the warmth of the summer sun would kiss my face as if I was blessed. I remember the endlessly lazy dreamy summers, how they were full of whimsy as if they'd go on forever. But soon enough, summer would ripen to golden days of september and I was nineteen, the carpet of my future unrolling ... AP: Honorable Mention 2023, Honorable Mention 2023 Submitted on April 29, 2023 for contest A BRIAN STRAND STANDARD NO.1212 sponsored by BRIAN STRAND Posted on April 26, 2023