A.J. Compton

I__ a feeler. I feel everything deep within my core. Even when I don__ want to. I don__ know where my emotions stop and my empathy begins. I feel from the tips of my toes to the follicles of my head. I feel with every fiber, every molecule, every tissue, marrow, muscle, and bone in my body. I feel.

Although we try to control it in a million different ways, the only things you can ever really do to time are enjoy it, or waste it. That__ it.

We__e gotten to that stage all soulmates reach of speaking in broken phrases and incomplete sentences, our connected and all-knowing minds filling in the blanks left by redundant words.

And suddenly I realize that all those books and movies had gotten it wrong.When you find your souls reflection in another, you shouldn__ be aware of anything other than their body, yours, and the space between.You shouldn__ be looking for someone whose kiss causes you to escape reality by transporting you to another time and place. Look for the person whose kiss grounds you firmly in the moment, whose arms hold you safely in the now.

We kiss with our eyes closed but our senses open, infusing the spaces between with the elements of the other.

We are forever changed, forever united.From almost-us to always us.We kiss with our eyes closed but our senses open, infusing the spaces between with the elements of the other.

This is one of those moments when I wish I could be young forever. Not just stop time for a second, but for an eternity. The old paradox that youth is wasted on the young is not true for us. Neither I nor my friends take our youth for granted. In fact, all of the young people I know are all too aware that someday soon time and gravity won__ be on their side anymore. And there__ nothing we can do about it. So the young do the only thing they can do. They live and they love and they dance and they sing, they dream and they scheme, they ponder and they plan. Like there__ no tomorrow. For tomorrow brings us one day closer to the inevitable and one day further from the impossible. And being young is all about achieving the impossible. Or at least believing you can. The old mistake our denial for ignorance, our immaturity for irresponsibility. We understand the rules of life, we just don__ want to play by them. Not yet. Not today. Not tonight.Because tonight is a good night to be young and alive.

Being young is all about achieving the impossible. Or at least believing you can. The old mistake our denial for ignorance, our immaturity for irresponsibility. We understand the rules of life, we just don__ want to play by them. Not yet. Not today. Not tonight.Because tonight is a good night to be young and alive.

Drowning in the majesty of the constellations is a reminder that the universe was here long before us, and it will be here long after we__e gone. When our bones become nothing but ash and earth, the world will keep on spinning. People will die, cry, love, and live as if we never were. But we are now. And that__ all that matters.In this moment, we are.Nothing but a boy and a girl. On the cusp of something greater than ourselves.Entering into the unknown and hoping we make it out the other side.With a strong sense of ourselves and only a faint idea of who we want to be.We are what we are. And we. are. now.Young, free, alive.Here, together, loved.

Legacies are not just for legends. Whether a million people know your name, or only one person does, you still have the right to leave your mark on the world, even if it__ only in your tiny corner of it, in the tiniest of ways.Not all of us will achieve great heights and feats. Most of us will never leave our hometown or country, let alone conquer Everest. And you know what? That__ okay. Because real life is what happens in between moments of greatness. It__ the little things that at the end of it all, you realize were greater than the sum of their parts. It__ the amount of times you laughed, or cried, danced, sang, created, inspired, and made someone smile.The best kind of legacies are the ones that are unseen. You__l never fully be able to measure the effect of a smile or a kind word, but I promise you, the most whispered phrase can send a shockwave around the world that lasts for centuries, or even an eternity.