I am 20 years old but I am a child. I actually would prefer the term "child" rather than "adult" when December hits. It might sound horribly awful, but I envy children. I actually resent them so much. They get to eat however many Christmas cookies they want without gaining an ounce while I take a sip of hot cocoa praying it kills my sweet tooth. They get to look forward to Santa Claus busting down their chimney with handmade gifts from his elves. While I sit late at night analyzing my text book in preparation for finals, I daydream of the time when I would be read a cheerful Christmas book and tucked into bed. I have to settle for the excitement of Black Friday shopping and the best deals I can find on a vacuum. This makes me sad.
I am not ready to adult.
On Black Friday as my cousin and I ran into Toys-R-Us to pick up a great deal on board games for our college wine nights a sense of sadness overwhelmed us. We got lost in the Nerf gun section for an hour and roamed the aisles with the endless amounts of brand new toys stocked high. Yes, we wanted the Legos and new indoor laser tag game, but reality is we had to save our money for food. Being an adult sucks and that isn’t any joke during Christmas time.
I just have to remind myself as should you that we have had our time for happiness, but now we are college students and that is over. IT IS OVER. (No…it is not)
Let us not forget that we get sick Christmas parties every week of December where we can dress as outrageously and childish as we want (while also drinking as much spiked egg nog as our heart’s desire). We have an endless month to watch all the Netflix we want without our parents shutting off TV at bed time! We can eat as many candy canes as we want without sharing. When we receive gifts we value them more. Our Christmas time becomes more about being with family rather than just about ourselves. Best yet we have the opportunity to look forward to someday when we get to be Santa Claus for a night and bring joy to our future children’s hearts. Ok…well that might sound a bit extreme to some right now but you can’t tell me you have never heard a friend or even yourself say “OMG, I can’t wait until I have a kid so I can do ___ for Christmas”
While Christmas can be very depressing for us, we can’t forget how much we get to do now that we are adults as well as the amount we have to look forward to. Christmas never stops being Christmas regardless of our age. Watch a Christmas movie with your grandparents around the fire and be thankful that you have the right to be a child at heart in an adult's body. It truly is the best of both worlds.
