The Backseat is the Place to be.

Between the ages of 4-16. Growing up is thee coolest thing a person of that age can do (besides something like taking a dump between GI-Joe and Transformers without missing the opening). You can go out, stay up as late as you want. It's all up to you, because you're grown up. Grown ups can do neato things like drive a car. If your between the ages of 19-death, then growing up isn't all that it's made out to be. You sometimes wish you could grow down.

I remember when I was younger, I used to love going on trips. To me, there was nothing in the world I enjoyed more, it meant I got to sit in the backseat, by myself, listening to my favorite CD's through my headphones. Nothing but me, the window and my music. It's hard to explain the feeling. It's kind of like you're in this bubble moving at an incredibly fast speed, and the world is flying by you in your personal cocoon of vision and sound.

I remember thinking, 'Someday, that'll be me up front. I can't wait!'

Growing up seemed like the coolest. Sadly, you never realize what you have until it's gone. The days when your biggest concern was how much juice was left in your CD player's batteries and how much longer until day you were offically grown up, seem like such a far off vision of a childhood that once was, yet I remember them as if they were yesterday. Sometimes, I really wish I could go back.

So, now I'm a grown up. I do grown up things. I have bills, I have to worry about the other guy not stopping at the red light. I'm no longer in the backseat, I'm up front. And it's scary. I wish I could go crawl in the backseat. Sit there put my headphones and just tune out the world.

Sometimes, I wish I could go back, but theres one thing that makes me want to stay up front, something that keeps me looking at the world from a different view. My wife. So long as she is my co-pilot. I never want to crawl in the back.