Babies have it made. All they do is eat, sleep, use the bathroom (which they don’t even have to clean up) and sleep more. Someone is to care for the baby as he or she lays there crying or laughing or sleeping. But what goes through a baby’s mind? “Goo goo gah gah” or maybe “I can’t wait until I can walk and get into things.”
Time passes and now that baby is talking, walking and tearing down block houses in his or her Kindergarten classroom. The teacher makes the toddler lay down for a nap, but the toddler refuses and wishes to be older so he or she doesn’t get treated like a baby.
Years go by and that toddler is now in middle school getting picked on for the three new zits that have developed on his or her face. The teen is now learning how to shave and what Algebra is: “will I even apply this in the future?” (the answer is no). The teen wakes up in the morning and looks at themselves in the mirror and thinks, “when am I going to be old enough to drive away and never come back?”
The now senior’s body is shaking from excitement as the principal is calling names; “(enter your name here) Smith (because let’s be honest, we all graduated with a Smith), …” he calls out. Applause fills the air as the caps fly around. Parties are had everywhere and questions are being asked: “Where are you going to college?, “What are you majoring in?” etc. What the now graduated senior doesn’t know is that he or she has a lot of late nights, major changes and Ramen noodles in the not-so-distant future.
Fast forward to the now. Fast forward to the after school phase where you graduated with a degree, but are doing something completely outside of that said degree and will probably never use your four-year education. You might be lucky to make a dollar more than minimum wage because you now have a piece of paper that states you are a hard worker. Every company hiring in your field requires at least five years of experience and they expect you to get those from the other companies waiting for five years of experience.
As kids, we always wanted to speed up time. Our age was never old enough for the time we were in. Being out of college for two years now makes me realize how easy it is to be in school and how difficult it is to be out of school. Paying bills, keeping up with a job, cleaning your own apartment, it’s all difficult when you’re out of school. But hey, that’s all stuff for another time. Just know that I would take anything to go back to being in Kindergarten where you are required to take a nap. I would go back to the middle school years and get made fun of for having a zit on my face. Heck, I would even go back to my freshman year of college because I wasn’t a "responsible" adult back then.
Growing up is a tough thing to do. In fact: It’s. A. Trap.
