When we were young, we sat and watched those classic Disney movies. Each had their own life lesson to tell a little kid, whether it be "Monsters Inc." (one should not judge a book by its cover), "Pinocchio" (honesty is the best policy) or "Finding Nemo" (if you "just keep swimming" you can get through anything).
Then there was the boy who could fly. Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up. He showed us all that we each have a side to us that we can never forget. Once we reach those teenage years, we begin to forget what it feels like to be a kid. We start to feel too mature for those toys or kids movies. We get so lost in the idea of growing up that we begin to lose what we once knew best -- how to be a kid. Just a simple reminder from the boy who never grew up in green tights, that we must never lose that little kid in each of us.
The magical island of Never Land, home to Peter Pan, is a place where people never grow up. As we sat and watched Peter and his adventure to Never Land, it didn’t stop us kids from wanting to grow up. Once you reach 5 years old, you can’t wait to start Kindergarten. Then we reach the age of 11 and we can’t wait to be a teenager and start middle school. Then we’re 15, waiting for a permit; 16, waiting to be able to drive; 17, waiting to finally be an adult; and then before you know it, the teenage years are practically over. We sit and let ourselves wish away year after year for the next and what is to come in the future, and in the process we forget to be a kid.
Peter Pan continued to warn us never to grow up, but we didn’t listen. We sat and waited for elementary school to be over, then we couldn’t wait for high school to be over, and now college. We chose to look at how much fun it seemed to be an adult -- having a car, making money, having a family and of course going to college. We were told not to grow up for a reason: it’s stressful, hard and definitely not Never Land.
We see friends who come and go, deal with heartbreak or just our own real life situations. Once the teenage years come, we are old enough to understand certain things that, as kids, wouldn’t have made sense to us at all. Being too young, we couldn’t comprehend what was going on and why some people left us and wouldn’t come back, or why the world could, at times, be a scary place.
When we look around at the world, it is not the world our parents lived in. It’s a world filled with rioting and hate -- something those classic Disney movies never prepared us for. We were thrown into a world where a movement is started at our fingertips, and a screen is more powerful than a voice. If only we didn’t grow up and stayed young our entire lives.
As you grow older, you don’t realize how fast everything actually goes. I soon realized that 18 was just an age. Sure, I was an adult, but still in my teen years. Now I’m beginning to realize I’ll soon be 20 years old. It’s scary to think about how fast time has gone.
I wished away the time that I didn’t realize what was the most exciting time: childhood. I became so worried about college and a job, and now I look around at the relationships people are in with what could be their future spouse.
I wished away being a kid, and now, as I'm about to end my first year of college, I wish I could just turn back the time -- be a kid again and not have to worry about real life. I would do anything just to be able to sit in front of a TV and not have a worry in the world.
If only I had listened, and never grown up.
