I'm turning 17 on Friday, and while it's not exactly as exciting as a sweet 16 with a driver's license to look forward to, or the big 18 with the various new rights acquired from legally being an adult, according to various sources I should still have some reasons to turn 17.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention page on child development, I'm nearing the end of middle adolescence. Exciting, yeah? My greater ability to sense right from wrong should hopefully be nearing completion by now.

Wikipedia says that I can now legally serve in the military. I look forward to using my greater ability to sense right from wrong on that one, but I can't say its not nice to have that option — especially when I look at that ever growing pile of homework that I'm accumulating.

Besides these, and the idea that I'll be able to get into R-rated movies now without a parent standing awkwardly there while I purchase the ticket, I can't really find much reason to smile while I relinquish a sweet 16 to a seemingly sucky 17.

Last year I got to look forward to a driver's license. When I turned 15, there was a driver's permit. When I turned 14, there was still the excitement of being a teenager. Now I still have all those things.

According to the same people who gave me the pleasure of knowing that I now have a better grip on what's right and what's wrong, they also made the quite obvious statement that I'm supposed to have more worries about my future plans.

And while the site technically does apply to 15- to 17-year-olds, I can't help but think how many more worries are being heaped on me this year. College applications are now only a year away, and despite the fact I'm not really stressing about going to college, it's the mere thought of having to slave away on college essays and going through the whole college process that bothers and scares me.

Maybe it's also the realization that some of these University of Illinois students are just a year or two older than me. Maybe it's the idea that this is legally my last year of being a child. Maybe it's just that I associate 16 with much more excitement and less responsibility, but the idea of being 17 and getting older is just not that appealing at the moment.

And while I have all these ideas whirring around in my head, Friday still is my birthday, which (in a few ways) is exciting enough.