"Finally! There go mom and dad out the door for a night out. It's 6 p.m. and I am gonna chill!"

Last year, even six months ago, those were my words and thoughts every time my parents or entire family left for the evening. I would sit down, kick back and seriously waste some aliens on my Xbox for four or five hours. When I got tired of that, I would pop in a favorite movie or watch my favorite TV show. I would stay up until they got home and forced me to go to bed.

During the summer, I slept until noon every day, got up ate, then played baseball or more video games or do something with my friends. On days on which I had a baseball game, I would get up a little earlier then have the rest of the day to chill. My one job during the summer was umpiring either at night during the weekdays or throughout the day on Saturday. Oh man, was I having fun. It was just nice, easy, and relaxed. And then...

Welcome to high school and to real life, big boy! The school year started and I suffered a broken foot during the second football game of the season. I had practiced the entire month of August for four hours a day to break my foot in the second game. After school started I realized I was getting more homework than I ever had before. That's okay I guess, I thought. I'll just have to cut back slightly on my gaming time, right?

So I'm chugging along in school and all of a sudden this amazing opportunity throws itself at me. I was given the chance to write for OnMilwaukee.com. Of course, I took it and just like that, I had one job, along with school. Then, a couple weeks later, I applied to work at McDonald's. I was hired and began to work immediately. Of course, being the incredibly charming and handsome young man that I am, not to mention hardworking, I saw my hours quickly rise. Unfortunately, those hours now chew up most of my weekends.

Then, to add more fuel to the fire, track started at my school. Practice is from 3 to 5 p.m. every day after school, and on top of that, it makes me exhausted. Let's recap -- I have school every day, which requires me to get up at six in the morning. I have school until 2:30 p.m., then track practice until 5 p.m. Then, I get home, shower, eat, and by that time, it's 7:30 p.m. Then I have all my homework to do, including some honors courses. I can't stay up late because I have school the next morning. At times I work from 6 to 10 p.m. during the week. On weekends I tend to work seven hours on Saturday and four to six hours on Sunday. Now, I have baseball practice Saturday night for two and a half hours and church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night.

With all these responsibilities on my plate, I hardly have any time to hang out with my friends. Even when I have a sliver of time to do so, I have to worry if they are working as well Now, not all my friends work. I have many that only attend school. They don't work, and don't play sports. They constantly have free time and it bugs them to always hear me say, "Sorry, at work right now" or " Can't, got a huge project due."

The point for me providing this information is to give a warning to all teenagers out there that the cliché, "You better enjoy this now because one day it will be gone," is very true. My parents used to tell me when I was young that one day I would miss nap time. Being seven years old, I thought that they were completely insane. Nine years later, oh how I wish I could have nap time every day. Teenagers, be ready for the day you have to face the real world.

One funny aspect is that every teacher or other working adult has laughed and said, "Welcome to the real world!" after I told them my "story." My father works 8 a.m.-6 p.m. every day, is raising five kids and he doesn't have that much time to play games, watch a lot of TV, or hang out with his friends every day. I guess I am starting to understand what I'm going to have to be doing the rest of my life, and it has shown me I need to truly appreciate what short time I have left in high school. All you other teens, you need to also realize that if you haven't started to enter the real world, it will happen very soon, you need to cherish the time you have left.