What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you are fifteen, you're also fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two and one. And when you wake up on your fifteenth birthday, you expect to feel fifteen but you don't.

You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel like you are already one year older at all. You feel you're still fourteen. And you are. Underneath the year that makes you fifteen.

Like some days you might say something stupid, and that's the part of you that's still ten. Or maybe some days you might need a hug from your peers because you're scared. And that part of you is five. The way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk. Each year inside the next one.

You don't feel fifteen right away. It takes a long time before you say your current age when they ask you. And maybe one day when you're all grown up, you will need to cry like you are three, and that's okay. Because you are feeling three..

( Taken out from a book.)