My name is Lucas, and the past 13 years of my life have been perfectly uneventful and unchanging. Well, about as uneventful and unchanging as you can get when you're growing up in this era. 13 years ago, I stepped into Abbotts Hill Elementary school for the first time, and my life changed dramatically for the last time in a long time. I would eventually move on to Taylor Road Middle School, and Chattahoochee High School, but don't let the change in names deceive you. These were all essentially the same schools in different clothing. Same classmates, same 1x1 ft. tiles and fluorescent lights, same mascot (in spirit... it's always a species of big yellow cat), same everything. At home, everything is unchanging as well. Our furniture is from 2009, when we got the house. The layout is the same from back then too, of course. Additionally, the food cycles through the same select recipes; I know the taste of every dish my parents can make by heart.

Then, for the first time in 13 years, everything was different. For the first time, I’ve called someplace home other than my house. For the first time, I walked into class on the first day seeing unfamiliar faces. I think it first hit me a week before I moved in. School had started for everybody else already, everybody else but me. As I drove to work, I watched as students would line up at the bus stop in an early morning haze. That used to be me, I thought. That was always me, but now it’ll never be me again. To me, life was like that morning haze. A sleepy trance induced by daily life where the illusion of forever and unchanging could almost be real. Before anyone starts thinking otherwise, this isn’t about me regretting not cherishing my grade school days more, they would’ve passed one way or another. I guess the point is that moving forward can be exciting and sad at the same time. In order to make room for the future, you have to let go of the past. To say hello to Athens, I have to say goodbye to Johns Creek. So let this journal entry be a hello to tomorrow, and a goodbye to yesterday.