fifteen

100 Years (Five For Fighting)

I'm 15 for a moment
Caught in between 10 and 20
And I'm just dreaming
Counting the ways to where you are

I'm 22 for a moment
She feels better than ever
And we're on fire
Making our way back from Mars

15 there's still time for you
Time to buy and time to lose
15, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got 100 years to live

I'm 33 for a moment
Still the man, but you see
I'm a they
A kid on the way
A family on my mind

I'm 45 for a moment
The sea is high
And I'm heading into a crisis
Chasing the years of my life

15 there's still time for you
Time to buy, and time to lose yourself
Within a morning star
15 I'm all right with you
15, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got 100 years to live

Half time goes by
Suddenly you’re wise
Another blink of an eye
67 is gone
The sun is getting high
We're moving on...

I'm 99 for a moment
Dying for just another moment
And I'm just dreaming
Counting the ways to where you are

15 there's still time for you
22 I feel her too
33 you’re on your way
Every day's a new day...

15 there's still time for you
Time to buy and time to choose
Hey 15, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got 100 years to live

Every weekday morning I teach 11 teenagers that range in age from 14-17. Most of the class is 15. They want so often to be 18, to be working, to be out of home, to be independent...and on it goes. Everything they think they want centres around being older than they are right now. No matter what I say they will never believe that 15 is a great age.

My whole childhood I thought something great would happen when I was 15. I looked forward to it, wanted desperately to 'be 15'. Now that I think about it, it might have had something to do with that TV show, James at 15. I was probably too young to watch it when I did, but I do remember all his adventures seeming so much more interesting than the life I was living. I loved that show so much.

After I turned 16 I had this idea that 19 was the perfect age. Legally we're adults at 18, but it takes people a while to see you that way and I always thought 19 would be the moment when I'd feel I'd really arrived as an adult. After 20 I believed that 24 was going to be great. From 25 on, I just wanted to be 24 again. I still do.

My point is that I loved being 15, 19 & 24 - these were great years in my life. Did I talk myself into that? Were they great because I was convinced they would be? If so, imagine if I'd always lived in the moment. Might have been a much more amazing life.

Still, if I'm honest, fifteen was the best. In spite of it also being the age of dealing with high school crap, "hating" my parents for not understanding me, and writing terrible and angsty poetry, it was still the best. It was the age of my first real love, the age where I first woke up to the world around me and became an activist of sorts, the age where I made real decisions about what I believed and how I wanted to live. Everything was so immediate at fifteen and I never felt jaded or weary.

15, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got 100 years to live.