When I look into the mirror, I see many things. I see my past, my present, and my future. The past is faded, but the future is clear. I hope one day I can be what the mirror is showing. Many images popped out at me like I was in the mirror. I had different emotions with the different images. Some were good and some were bad. I would never change anything in my past, because I have a great life and a great childhood. Everyone has good days and bad days, but more good days then bad. I am a positive person, so I have more good days and good memories then bad. Thoughts began trembling in my head. “Was this really my past?” I asked myself. I see me in every image, but I just don’t remember all of them.

In the mirror I looked in the past. I saw me as a baby. I saw images and brief slides of different memories. I saw people, familiar faces, and family. I saw me with my older cousins when we used to be close. The memories went by fast, too fast. I tried to embrace each memory one by one. They started to pass faster and faster until I had to let go. My feelings started to turn blue when I lost my special memories the memories that meant the most to me. I look around as a tear rolled down my check. I know I can get a memory back if I tried, but it is hard to do. It still hurts when they start to fade. I look into my past to see me start to grow. The mirror starts to show an image slide past. The image was a family picture of my mom, dad, and me. The memory made my heart fill with joy and happiness. I couldn’t remember the last time when they were together and happy, when we were all a family. Soon after, my mom and dad split up. I thought our family was unbreakable, so I don’t know what happened. We all seemed perfect together. It was hard to deal with for the longest time. I thought the pain would never end. The pain left, but it left a scare.

As the images flew past, I saw many things that I liked to do. I saw old football, baseball, and basketball games that I played in. In the distance I saw the present and more scares on me. Scares from getting picked on, getting beat up, and getting my heart broken.
I feel I am the way I am because of all the times I’ve been hurt. I don’t want to hurt anyone that would only be another scare on me. When people tease me or pick on me, it only gets me stronger. It shows me what I can really take. I look in the mirror to see a face. My grandmas face. She was there when I needed her the most. She even helped raise me. When she died she proved a point. It showed how strong of a family we are, and we can do anything when we are together. That is a very important characteristic for a family.

I look deeper and deeper in to the mirror. I see what looks like a older version of me. I see a wife a kids surrounding me. I can’t tell where we are besides in a house. I look to be around 27 years old. I look around to see many published books with my name on them. I look on a desk to see two different collage degrees. I see a PhD in journalism and a PhD in criminal and justice. I felt a tear run down my face. I accomplished two dreams in my life. Go to collage like my 7th grade advanced English told me I had to do, and have a family like I wanted to do. I see that I am married to a successful journalist from the news paper and I have two kids, a boy and a girl, but I can’t make out names. I can see from their childhood they will both be very successful too.

I look further into the mirror into my kid’s future. They both are collage professors for the University of South Carolina (USC). The same collage I went to get my degrees, and the same collage I played football for. I can’t wait to actually have kids and feel what it’s like to be a proud father. I hope my future is as wonderful as I am hoping.

I look into the mirror but walk backwards. I stare and think. The memories from the past are good to see. The memories from the future have not happened yet. I want those to be a surprise. I start to stare in the mirror. Living in the past is not good, so I’m going to stay right here in the present.