I'mma get your heart racing in my skin tight jeans, be your teenage dream tonight. 

Once upon a time, we were 16.

We stayed up all night. We wasted money. We avoided doing our math homework. As sixteen year old kids, we thought we knew everything. The world once conspired against us, but in reality, life was never fair. Our parents were our worst enemies, but in truth, for most of us, they are our support system. We had our own share of "frenemies" but then we realized that there are only either friends or enemies.

We all had our teenage dreams. Everyday we woke up living in our own personal worlds. The world, at that time, were our friends and whoever that special someone was. We tried to be smart about things, but in the end, it was easier to let things go. We were vastly different. Aesthetically speaking, we knew right away why we were so insecure.

Being sixteen once felt like a tug o' war. We wanted to grow up, yet we projected ourselves longing to be forever young. Personally, when I was sixteen, all the girls in my school (including me) had Mickey Mouse, Lisa Frank and Barbie school bags. But at the end of the day, all we wanted was to gain independence. We wished our parents were much cooler. We longed to get out, drive away and party.

Screw studying. Screw Algebra.

Once, we were sixteen. As time passed, so did the trends of cartoon character school bags fade. We had to start loving books and pens. We learned to say hello to homework and planners. Say goodbye to the dreams of driving away and partying with just being dreams because now, we are finally old enough to do it. We graduated high school and we graduated from braces and acne. Bid adieu to our frenemies and welcome the greatest enemy - ourselves.

Sometimes, I miss being sixteen. It was the age of innocence where in the biggest problem we ever had was getting our crush to say "hi!" to us back...or letting your parents sign your failed Algebra test. The only issues we dealt with were gaining weight and not being "pretty enough" to find a date to the prom. We thought we had life figured out. But, oh boy, were we wrong about that.