No matter who you are or where you come from, there are multiple times in life that catch us off guard. Suddenly, we are moving past childhood and all that came alongside it, the dreams, the blissful innocence, open-minded hearts, the hope, and the notion that we had the whole world at our fingertips. It was an incredible feeling being free from adulthood, but we took advantage and grew up as fast as we could. Wanted nothing more than to sit at the adult table to have adult drinks and adult conversations. More birthdays meant more privileges, which also meant closer to being an adult. As a child, I wanted to be seen and heard and respected by people who were adults. Now I want nothing more than to rewind the clock back fifteen years to fully experience my childhood not worrying about getting older. There was a time where we only thought about the future and now that our future is here we can only think about our past. Wondering, did we make the right choices? Are we getting the most out of our time? What if we made different choices, would we be the same or even know the same people? Looking back, there are significant timeline events that have shaped me into being exactly who I am. If these events were removed, I would be an entirely new person with new experiences and stories. There are some hidden truths to aging that most of us know but do not acknowledge.

Pain and failure are good, and without them, we would not truly be human. Pain shows us how to feel, shows our brokenness, imperfections, and it shows us new perspectives on life and our experiences. Failures are the best lessons we can ever receive. Growing up you realize the world is a messy place, and people will hurt and torment one another relentlessly. The trust will be broken; relationships fall apart, families fight and splinter and we can do little. We can easily allow past pain and failures we have endured rule who we become and control how we feel. We can allow it to ruin our relationships and opportunities, or we can use it to fuel our ambitions and dreams by learning from them and not making the same harmful mistakes. Our pain is also there to help connect to others around us, either for support or being someone else’s support in their time of sorrow. Being so young, we have only felt a splinter of pain that this world is capable of. We may believe we have been through an eternity of hurtful lessons when we have barely walked through the door.

If you are still in your twenties, you are beginning to feel ‘old’ due to everyone and everything changing around you. The truth of the matter is if you are still in your twenties you have long ways to go before you are truly ‘old’ and there are people twice your age that raised you experiencing a much worse ‘old.’ There is an awkward stage between graduating high school and graduating college due to our misconception of ‘adulting.’ We think that not directly living with mom and dad means we are young independent adults who then, however, call mom to set up a dentist appointment for when we come home. The real life stuff hits the fan after college when your parents give you all the bills and other responsibilities you haven’t even thought of yet.

Getting old or gaining wrinkles and gray hair should not be something that scares us. We could try all of the ointments and creams in the world, yet unless we have found the infamous fountain of youth, we cannot stop aging. Nor should we try to stop the natural order of who we are. Our body can tell stories about who we are just as our mouth can. I collect all of the imperfect and scars on my body, because to each and every one I have a unique story of how it made me who I am. We should not feel worried about aging while in fact, we are still young. As we grow older, we become more wise and intelligent if we learn from our past and accept where we are currently. With age comes beauty, and as someone so young, I can most definitely say we are just beginning to blossom, and are nowhere near a full bloom.