“We never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public.” -Bryan White.

Although I will get older, I believe in never growing up. As a child, I saw growing up as a chance for more opportunities and more freedom. It was that freedom and the idea of being able to do things on my own that made me so restless. I wasn’t wrong to think this, in that as I got older I received a later curfew, a cell phone, being able to stay home alone, a driver’s license, and many other rewards of young adult achievement.

There is no question that aging is inevitable, but growing up is not. Sure, as we get older we have to mature and can’t do many of the childish things we once could. However, this doesn’t mean that you should completely forget the feelings and experiences of childhood. Nothing feels better than joining in on something, for even just a little, where you, “felt like a kid again.” For example, the adrenaline and excitement one gets from a roller coaster, no matter their age. Growing up doesn't have to mean letting go of childhood.

Now, the idea of never growing up is not an excuse for one to live in one’s 20’s forever and party every night. Instead, it sets forth an idea to hold onto the utter bliss and simplicity that came so easily to us as children in our hearts forever. We can remain grown up, but with childish happiness still inside of us, the ability to find joy in simple things, the ability to meet people without preconceived judgments, to be creative in times of boredom.

Someone once told me that people are like trees, an analogy that I’ve always remembered. If I were to chop down a tree, the rings of the stump would tell me that tree’s age. For every year a tree gets older, it gains a ring but doesn’t lose old rings. I believe growing up for humans is quite similar. When we turn ten, we may act like a ten-year-old, but still find ourselves loving the same thing we loved at age eight. When we turn twenty, we may be older, but we still find ourselves laughing at something a ten-year-old would find funny. It’s why teenagers often act childish and adults still like Mickey Mouse. We may grow older, we may grow wiser, and we may grow more sophisticated, but there is always a part of us that never grows up. And as these “rings” live with us forever, they have only been covered up by the adult mask we have to wear.

Yet there are still certain times and places that awaken this inner child, the “I’m like a little kid, I’m so excited” moments. One may experience these moments in line for a ride, in the candy store, watching their favorite movie, or when one laughs really loud. Whatever it may be, we’ve all experienced them because they exist; because the little kid inside us still exists.

Why as adults do we still long for these moments that awaken our inner child? I feel it is because we all remember how stress-free and happy it is to be a kid. We turn to moments when we need a reminder that the whole world doesn’t revolve around a term paper, a job interview, or the finals one isn’t prepared to take. All of that seems to fade away when one awakens their inner child. As a little kid, all the problems we had seemed to fade easily. The scrape on a child’s knee seems like the end of the world until their mom bribes them to stop crying with a Popsicle. It possibly may be because there is no denying that we found the most happiness in our lives as children.

I'm sure each of us can recall being little and saying how we couldn't wait to be a big kid, being in grade school and saying we couldn't wait to get to high school, being in high school and wanting to be 18 and moved out in college, being in college and wanting to graduate and get settled in a house of our own, getting into the workforce and wanting retirement. Why are we always yearning for something in the future? We need to take advantage of where we are in our lives before we wish our whole lives away. Walt Disney once said, “People say I still have the innocence of a child. Maybe I have. I still look at the world with wonder.” We need not forget how complete our lives were as children. Only in holding onto the little kid that lives inside us will we find such satisfaction.

So while there may be nothing we can do about aging and facing adult responsibilities we can’t neglect the little kid that still lives deep inside from coming out every once in a while. A wise boy by the name of Peter Pan once said, “Never grow up.” It’s time we begin to listen to him. It’s possible to grow up, without ever having to really grow up.