I used to believe that the future was far off. I grew up thinking this. Always listening too stories my grandparents told and hearing what my parents said. They all said it differently but with the same meaning. Recollection of my grandad saying "seems like just yesterday" referring to a distant childhood memory. Or my dad saying "not to grow up to fast", that before I know it I'll have two kids of my own living in my home. Being young and clueless, I never paid those words much mind. Me being so little with so much life ahead, it seemed like ages until I could even drive. Comprehension of what they said wasn’t plausible. How could life go by so quick if I have so many years to live? Year by year I thought this same thing. Though, I soon began to recognize the world around me. I grew into my teens, and started to drive. Around that time my papa grew ill. He battled cancer with every bit of his being. It was a sad time. Sad for the entire family. For, my papa the proud strong marine that I looked up too seemed to just wither away.

I was just turning fifteen around the time he passed. Remembering all of his stories, that are now trapped in my head as only memories, hurts. It made me wonder why life with him was so short, and why I could no longer grow up with pops. The fifteen years spent with him didn’t seem to be enough.

I am sixteen now and I'm driving myself around being a kid, building memories, and stories much like the ones my grandad told. I'm slowly growing into a man and in this growth with all that’s gone on I perceive that the childhood I'm living in will soon be a story that "seems like just yesterday". The time that I've lived has gone by in a blink and the future no longer seems so far away, for I now believe that I'm very close to a distant future.
The realization that life is not as long as it seems makes the mind of a person wonder what's important. It makes one wonder how their everyday life should be lived. What is the purpose of my life?

I am convinced that a person's life could be wrote down on a piece of paper. The important substance being wrote down with an ink pen, representing what defines you. The others wrote down in pencil, to assume the role of what didn’t matter. With a short life the decision has to be made, what is my purpose? What's going to be wrote down in ink?

Life isn't long. The future is near.