When I was in third grade, I thought 16 was the age to be. At 16 you could drive, and that meant you were a real teenager.
I am now 16. But unfortunately, my fantasy of teenage life — where I would go on late-night drives, get perfect grades and develop some mysterious superpower destined to save the world — is nothing like the life I live today. Little did my 8-year-old self know that she would envy her seemingly mundane life, which was perfect in so many ways.
In 2017, I woke up each morning in time to catch the school bus to Fellows Elementary in Ames, Iowa, at precisely 7:12 a.m. in the morning. There I would spend the next 8 hours of my day. And that was it. No after-school club meetings or no practice, no weekend debate tournaments and, best of all, no homework…