My 16 year old daughter has her first boyfriend. He is a nice kid, very academically talented, plays several instruments, and speaks more than one language. As a dad, I can't complain. But this September my wife and and I both thought there was something strange going on between them, but hard to put a finger on. My daughter finally told us what was going on. Her boyfriend, Jeremy was spending the night in the hospital 2 - 3 nights per week to receive chemo for brain cancer, and then going to school the next day and pretending everything was normal. He did not want to tell any teachers or other kids, or have anybody know what he was going through. He would come over to our house and fall asleep, and never eat. To be 16, with that much potential, and dealing with that heavy burden, basically by himself (single parent) was an eye opener for me. Geez, I thought I had problems! (And it has since turned out that his tumor was not malignant, and he is recovering).
Basically, none of us know when our time is up. If you die when you are 16 it means you were "middle aged" when you where 8!