It’s scary to think that growing up is the hardest thing you’ll ever do. Years go by likes seconds and memories pile up in terms of decades instead of days weeks and months.
You see your old childhood chums go from crazy kids to having crazy kids of their own and watch your own parents grow older right before your eyes as you just work toward just starting yours.
I was always told and am continued to be told that growing up isn’t easy, times are always a changin’. I feel like just yesterday I was a chubby 10-year-old who’s only worry in the world was if I could beat Super Mario World before bedtime. Flash forward over a decade later and here I sit in a college dorm room, with a cap and gown clearly visible in the distance blocking everything on the horizon. Leaving everything past December 2016 completely unknown. That’s something nobody will ever tell you, growing up means the predictability goes out the window.
The best friends forever sometimes only turn out to be the best friends through high school and the love of your life may become a stranger way quicker than you think. Growing up can also mean growing apart. Letting people come and go in and out of your life for better or for worse. Realizing that sometimes we all go down different paths in life, sometimes when friendships disintegrate, all you can be left with are the lessons you learned along the way.
Growing up means losing some basic comforts that have always been there before. Having my family within earshot is no longer an option for most of the year. My parents and brothers are not here waiting for me when I finish up with my classes. I’ve been lucky to have grown up with two brothers, and we no longer live directly behind each other’s walls. Watching my little brother start college was an experience and watching older brother get married soon will be another surreal one. Cementing the fact that we aren’t kids anymore and we are all moving toward out own lives.
Most importantly, I don’t anyone will tell you that growing up you will never really be finished. Who you are at 22 is not who you will be at 32 or 42. You will always be growing and always adapting to new things. You may sometimes want things you never have before and be more willing to trade the wild night at the bar for a quiet one at home. For the first time you may picture spending your entire life with someone and becoming serious about a family of your own. Or possibly uprooting yourself to follow your passions in life away from your hometown for the first time. You’re not going to be the same forever, you can’t be. Believe me, I’m glad I’m not that chubby 10-year-old anymore, and I know someday I’ll be glad that I’m not an awkward 22-year-old anymore.
Growing up is the biggest part of life. You’re never finished and there’s a million things people don’t tell you about it. Eventually we will all be old and grey and we still won’t have all the answers, and that’s OK. Growing up can lead to a lot of good. Leaving something behind doesn’t mean you’re always losing something, even though it may seem like it along the way. I prefer to look at it as an opportunity to become the person we’ve always dreamed of being, even if there are some bumps along the way.
So to the 10-year-old me, the 22-year-old me, and even the 50-year-old me, don’t stop growing. You’re not finished yet.
