I felt so free.

As I sit in the backseat of my friend's convertible, my four friends are all around me singing the music that's blaring from the car's stereo system at the top of their lungs. We're driving across the long bridge from Clearwater to Tampa, Florida. It's night, and I can see the beautiful shining lights of the city, reflecting onto the stillness of the water in the bay. I'm sitting in the middle of this, soaking in the beauty of that moment. I don't want this ever to end. Sometimes, I feel alone. I feel hopeless. I feel lost. But in that moment with my friends, it was something that I have never felt before. I felt so free as I held my hands above the body of the car, screaming into the darkness of the night, with these close friends.

"Because I know there are people who say all these things don't happen. And there are people who forget what it's like to be 16 when they turn 17. I know these will all be stories someday. And our pictures will become old photographs... But right now these moments are not stories. This is happening... I can see it. This one moment when you know you're not a sad story. You are alive, and you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song on that drive with the people you love most in this world. And in this moment I swear, we are infinite." -Stephen Chbosky