Role models try their best to prepare you for your future, but there are moments that nobody can prepare you for. These moments assure you that you are growing and maturing, but it can be heartbreaking. Everybody wants to be an adult until you actually have to be one...
1. Waking up on the couch.
Everybody remembers falling asleep on the couch or on the floor and waking up in your bed as a little kid, but you knew you were growing up when you woke up in the same place where you fell asleep. It was always a disappointing moment, but at the same time the thrill of getting older was always fascinating.
2. Realizing your idols are not "all-knowing."
As a kid, I always thought my parents, grandparents, teachers, or any adult with any impact on my life knew everything. I thought they had all the answers, and I thought one day I would too. As it turns out, these people were just like me. They have more experience and knowledge, but there are some questions people cannot possibly have the answers to. I am an adult now, and kids sometimes see me the same way I saw adults when I was a child. If only they knew that I ask the same questions they do, and I was in their position about a decade ago.
3. Learning from failures.
Ever since I can remember, I have been horrified of failure. To be completely honest, I still am. I do my best to avoid it, but we cannot avoid the inevitable for long. Part of maturing is realizing that making mistakes and doing things wrong is human nature, and it should be treated as a learning experience. I've embarrassed myself more times than I can count, but I do not regret any of them. Not a single one. Each and every one of those moments taught me how to do things(and more importantly what NOT to do).
4. Learning you are the only person keeping you happy.
Other people cannot create happiness for you. It is not always a "choice" to be happy, but you have to find ways to give yourself peace and joy. No other person knows you like you do. Nobody knows what you need or what you want, and we come to realize that happiness and peace with our lives comes from within ourselves.
5. Living in the moment.
I was always an anxious kid, and I will always be an anxious adult. The difference between then and now is that I learned to stop living in the past and worrying about the future. Enjoying the now is how to truly be happy. If you're constantly worrying about everything else, you will miss the important moments happening right in front of you.
6. Leaving home.
It was scary for me to leave home for a week for band camp when I was twelve, but now I am moved out of my house and living in a dorm. Every little thing in our childhood is meant to prepare us to move out of our parent's house, but nothing can truly prepare you for the actual thing. Nobody prepares us for leaving everything we know in the dust. It is scary. I seem to be more clueless than during #4 on this list. With all the fear, it is a part of life, and I am sure in four years I will have more things to add to this.
