Sixteen Candles

Tomorrow my little cousin, Haley will turn 16. THAT IS SO WEIRD. I can't believe how grown up she is. I blinked and she went from 4 years old to this incredibly beautiful, smart, funny and amazing young woman. I have never seen someone dance the way she does; it's like she just transforms to the music. I am the klutz of klutzes and here I'm related to this perfectly poised and graceful ballerina. I would be jealous, but I don't know if I would be able to put in the work she does. The commitment it takes to be a serious dancer in high school is astounding but she endures it on top of making exemplary grades. One day everyone will know her name and I'll get to say, "That's my baby cousin." I hope she has a wonderful birthday (even though she has a performance) and I know that 16 is going to be a fantastic year for my girl.

All this 16 year old talk has gotten me remembering my life at 16. I'm not going to lie, when I was 16 my life was badass. I had the best friends, the coolest mom, the party house and I was the first one to be able to drive. As soon as I got those car keys I was home to sleep and even that was rare. I taught my friend Nick how to drive in my car. I used to drive around with my windows down, Lil Wayne blasting and my bass shaking other people's cars. Yeah, I was that guy. Catherine and I were always late to school, but her mom used to make us these bomb as hell sausage biscuits in the mornings so being late was always worth it.  I used my car an extra room, there were more clothes in that damn 4-Runner than in both of my closets combined. People criticized this but I'll have you know that I was always warm on cold days because I always had extra layers.

But I really did have the world's greatest friends. And I am very proud to say that I have maintained almost all those friendships. We are all in different places now but that doesn't make much of a difference. We did some crazy and fantastically stupid shit in high school, but by the grace of God we lived to tell the tales. They are still some of the coolest people I've ever had the pleasure to meet.