It is funny to me that often we spend our entire childhoods itching to grow up: We count down the days until we are too old for nap time or until we are big enough to ride our bike without training wheels. We dream of being mature enough to watch our very first PG-13 movie or old enough to drive a car all by ourselves. I remember thinking to myself almost every single day when I was growing up, “I can't wait until I am an adult so I can do whatever I want” -- and now here I am, a senior in college, eating my words.
You see, the thing they never really tell you about actually growing up is that it sneaks up on you. That one day you are in kindergarten and the next day you are walking across the stage, receiving your college diploma. They never tell you that growing up means one day boys will no longer have cooties and love is more complicated than believing that if he is mean to you on the playground, then he likes you. That you will wake up to find that life is no longer rainbows and butterflies, and you truly learn how cruel other people can be. Nobody ever tells you that growing up means one day the mindset that you can be anything you want will be crippled by self-doubt and insecurity during your adolescence. That you will meet people who will try to tear you down, and that sometimes bad things happen to good people. They don’t tell you about how terrifying it is to have the freedom to make all of your own decisions. Or that when you are tossed out into the real world at age 22, you are going to wish like hell you were still a kid.
They never tell you how badly you will miss the feeling of embarrassment when your mom drops you off at the movies when you are 12 and how lonely it is when you finally can drive yourself places alone. That sometimes life is going to throw monsters at you that can’t be overcome by hiding under your blankets. That one day a time will come when your parents are no longer going to always be there to bail you out of whatever mess you have created or protect you from the harsh reality that is the real world. They never tell you that childhood comes with an expiration date and that as time goes on you are going to have to fight to keep your imagination afloat.
The thing that they never tell you about growing up is that when it actually comes time to do it you are completely and utterly unprepared. You will feel blindsided by an entirely new set of expectations and responsibilities. You will feel lost in a new city you move to for your very first job, and no matter how hard you try to make your apartment feel homey, nothing will ever compare to your bedroom in your childhood home.They never tell you that there will come a time in all of our lives when we must cross the bridge from childhood into adulthood. There will come a time when playgrounds are replaced by cubicles, and notes being passed in class become corporate emails. Your 16th birthday quickly turns into your 21st, and the boy who was mean to you in kindergarten is on his way to work in a suit all grown up.
We have our entire lives ahead of us to be adults. We have our entire lives ahead of us to do taxes, vote in elections, and remodel our new homes. Life only gets more complicated as time goes on, so why on earth were we ever in such a hurry to grow up? There comes a time and place in everyone's life when they have to cross over the bridge from childhood to adulthood, so why rush it? Why wish away the thrill of being 21 years old and out at a bar with your friends for the very first time? Why fight an 11 o'clock curfew only to miss your parents tucking you into bed at night years later? Why not take life day by day and enjoy what each year of your life brings? Life is long and no matter how hard you try time is not going to speed up. So why not enjoy being a kid for as long as you can and grow up gradually rather than all at once? I for one am not in any rush.
