杨天江于2024年6月21日从玛丽克莱尔学校校长手中接过小学毕业证书

我很快就十三岁了

（中英双语版）

作者：杨天江

他们告诉我，我长得太快了；他们说，我看起来比实际年龄更成熟。我很快就十三岁了。

我的父母仍然谈论着我小时候的记忆，就像昨天一样。而我，也仍然在看我小时候的照片。我很快就十三岁了。

我觉得我的七岁或十二岁生日就像昨天一样，直到昨天，我才终于满 2 位数；直到昨天，我才举办了第一次派对。直到昨天，我才第一次搬到加拿大……我很快就十三岁了。

他们说，十三是一个不吉利的数字，但事实并非如此，无论美国人从多少部电梯上移除了十三，或者有多少栋建筑将排除在十三层之外，十三，永远是一个神圣的数字。它代表着你从童年时代迈向人生下一步的第一个阶段。你是一个青少年了，你开始自己做决定，用新的眼光看待世界，脱下外套，感受清新的春风。虽然这段时间很短，但，青少年时期总是黄金时期，在如此短暂的时间里，会发生很多事情：

你可能会交许多的朋友，或许会尝试一点点酒，甚至，做一些冒险的事情，但，这是反复试验、学习和成功以及为真正的最终考试做准备的黄金时刻：大学。

小时候，我希望成为一个“酷酷的青少年”；十岁的时候，我希望自己更成熟、更独立，或者希望自己长大一点，成为一个“冷静的成年人”；想想快要成年了，我又感到压力和恐惧，希望自己能回到小时候，躲在父母的保护伞下，只担心床底下的怪物或黑暗中令人毛骨悚然的阴影，而不是如何支付房租，或者这段感情是否是你的最后一段感情。

我的朋友昨天给我发短信说：“再过二十天，你就十三岁了。”我突然意识到，这就像一桶冰水。再过二十天就十三岁了……已经这样了？但是……哦，天哪，我的意思是，已经有一段时间了，对吧？我已经呼吸着这种空气，沐浴着这种阳光，站在这片土地上将近十三年了……三十年呢？六十年呢？未来……好吧，想想也没用。青少年时代即将到来，虽然 Youtube Shorts 看起来很无用，但实际上它也有一些帮助：真正的成年人分享他们自己的经历，许多人给我们这些年轻的观众提供建议，告诉我们，如何不完全浪费我们的青少年时代。

需要一所好学校，我就读于一所好学校，这是一件好事。那里如此平静祥和。当然，学习是一项艰巨的工作，但，那将是一件有趣的事情。除了未来，没有人知道未来会发生什么，你不是未来，所以不要再为未知的事情感到压力。专注于现在，这样，它就会成为过去，未来就成为现在。

每一滴珍贵的时间都是神圣的，童年和成年一样精彩，而青少年就是要跨过那座桥，享受你最好的青春，过着最疯狂的生活，努力学习，甚至可能参加派对。

他们告诉我，我长得太快了。他们说，我看起来比实际年龄成熟。

我很快就十三岁了。

附英文版：

Thirteen

They told me that I’m growing up too fast. Then they say I look so old for my young age. I’m turning thirteen soon.

My parents still talk about my baby memories like they were yesterday. I still see pictures of my baby self. I’m turning thirteen soon.

I feel like my tenth or seventh birthday was only yesterday, only yesterday had I finally reached 2 digits, only yesterday had I had my first ever party. Only yesterday had I first moved to Canada… I’m turning thirteen.

They say thirteen is an unlucky number. It is anything but that, no matter how many elevators Americans remove it from or how many thirteenth floors are excluded from buildings, thirteen is forever a sacred number. It represents your first leap from a child to the next step of life. You’re a teen, starting to make your own decisions and seeing the world under a new light, taking off your jacket and feeling the fresh winter wind. It’s a small amount of time, but the teenage years are always golden, in so little amount of time so many things can happen:

You can get your first boyfriend, get drunk or even break the law for this first time. It’s the golden hour for trial and error, learning and succeeding and prepping yourself for the real and final test: university. As a child, we wish to be a ‘cool teen’, as a teen, we wish to be more mature and independent or wish to be older and a ‘collected adult’, as an adult we are stressed and scared and wish we were a kid again, hiding under our parent’s umbrella and only worrying about the monsters under the bed or the creepy shadows in the dark, not how to pay for rent or if this relationship will be your last.

My friend texted me yesterday, said “You’ll be turning thirteen in twenty days.” That’s when it hit me like a bucket of ice water. Thirteen in twenty days..? Already? But… Oh well, ah geez, I mean, it’s been a while huh? I’ve been breathing this air, bathing under this sun, standing on this ground for a near solid thirteen years… What about thirty? And sixty? The future… Well, thinking about it doesn’t help. The teenage years are coming, and as much as Youtube Shorts seems stupid, it’s actually really helpful: actual adults share their own experiences and many give tips to us younger audiences on how to not completely flop our teenage years.

A good school is needed, that’s a good thing. I go to one. It’s so calm and peaceful, sure, studying is a tough job but that’ll be one of the fun parts. Maybe I’ll get a boyfriend, maybe I’ll wake up one day and say ‘hell, I want a girlfriend’ alright then. Nobody except the future knows what the future holds, you’re not the future, so stop stressing about what can’t be known. Focus on the present so it becomes the past and the future becomes the present.

Every single precious droplet of time is sacred, childhood is just as amazing as adulthood is and being a teenager is crossing that bridge by being in your best youth and living your wildest life while studying your hardest and maybe even partying.

They told me I was growing up too fast. Then they said I looked too old for my age. I’m turning thirteen soon.

杨天江在多伦多大学附属中学（UTS）留影

作者简介：杨天江，英文名Ayesha Yang，祖籍湖南汉寿县，2011年10月13日出生于长沙，现就读于多伦多大学附属中学（UTS），为该校辩论队、篮球队成员。