18...

I didn't even know, couldn't even tell when my blank check was thrust into the palm of my hand; but then again, my parents were always very lenient and I never knew any restrictions growing up.

And now I wish I had.

Self-grounding doesn't help either. It lacks the parental element that I seek—I hate being a perfectionist! Even now, my parents don't give my activities any heed. Have they taken my being responsible for granted?

If only I were so.

With the increasing number of years, come increasingly difficult obstacles that one must possess the knowledge of dealing with.

So that we don't screw up.

Keeping a diary is helpful. You can track yourself by confiding everything into any sort of diary and then devise strategies to overcoming what's in the way. Consulting with an adult authority figure is advisable, but you need to determine first where their allegiance lies: with you or with what is right. My such figure is the internet. I browse for everything on the web, and the solutions that I come across are perfect. Too many cooks, in this case, have never spoiled the broth for me.

From how to not be sad, to how to make friends and how to solve a problem, the internet has been my aid.

As we enter the grown-up world, we are expected to behave like adults. Some never wade through these waters. I didn't, at first; but as my number of screw-ups increased, I automatically became inclined to sticking to the rules and staying out of trouble.

There's so much that one ought to know to survive the real world.

When we are so indulged in our teenage-life, real things keep happening in the real world. And we have to then catch up to them with more than just extraordinary vigor.

And this catching-up is what gets to us

There is so much more to life than selfies and hanging out. I was never infected by the selfie epidemic. Thank you, Almighty, for that. But I covered up for that with irresponsibly handling my allowance, not being social when needed, and by isolating myself from all things important.

I have a lot to fix and a lot to learn.

Success comes to those who are super-sensitive of these issues. Dreaming pipe-dreams and dwelling on farfetched ideas is only a waste of time if one is not intelligent enough to know what to do and what to drop and how to get to where one wants.

I hate this freedom. I don't yet have the thinking of a responsible adult. I'm working on it. Until then, I have my fingers tightly crossed.