Growing up

I think it's safe to say that we're all a little afraid to grow up. Sure, growing up means more privileges: owning a car, living outside of your parents' roof, clubbing until two in the morning with no curfew, making your own money, access to R-rated films, satisfying your personal desires, and best of all...drinking like there's no tomorrow. All these are great...but they come at the price of something greater: in order to grow up, we must let go of our childhood essence. I don't mean that we have to stop being a kid or stop having fun or stop being silly at times. I just mean...the "essence" of childhood: the having-no-worries-and-responsibility-of-whatsoever. I love being an adult as much as the next guy but there is much more to it than just freedom. Growing up means letting go of retarded excuses, knowing that I'm not living my life for just me, being a support body to those I love, thinking of all the possibilities before acting, setting out to achieve my goal, not letting go of those things and people that are dearest to me, having fun but knowing the place and time for it, learning to be patient, and much much more.

You don't want to grow up? You want to stay as a child in the body of grown man/woman? Sure, go ahead but I think that's just ridiculous. Having a big head and small body or small head and big body is disproportional but that's okay because you have no control over that. But...acting like a kid all the time in a grown body is just plain annoyingly disproportional.

As breathing beings, we're bound to grow up at some point - whether we are ready for it or not. And when we do have to, we just have to go along with it, being the best that we can at it. And yes, majority of us are afraid to grow up because growing up means SO much more than just the height of our body, the size of our feet, or the wrinkles on our face.

I'll admit that I do want to be a youngster again - be that eleven-year-old whose biggest worries were wearing the correct uniform and colors to school, making sure I had enough tissues prepared for school since I constantly had a running nose, and remembering where I had placed my homework the night before...