Do we actually “grow up” or are we just trying to fool everyone around us into believing that we are functioning adults? Unfortunately, life did not come with a user’s manual. Society makes everything up and it is society that shapes the way we act according to our age. As we get older we gain responsibility and we gain maturity, but we are all different and we will all change at different rates. When we grow older we become mature, without even knowing it, but when it comes to how we feel about ourselves we never FEEL any different. (We did a post a while back on birthdays, and getting older if you want to read more on that subject just click here … do it now … but read it after you finish this!) Society, parents, aunts, and uncles tell us that we are supposed to act a certain way because of our age. There have been many times in my life where loved ones have approached me with questions to try and validate my “adulthood.” I have graduated university, and have supposedly entered the “real world,” but I am still that little kid, walking into a classroom full of other kids and not knowing what to expect. Yup I said it I do not have a single clue as to what I am doing, no matter how put together I seem.
When I was attending university, I was taken aback by something my mentor said to me. We were working through some grueling material that seemed next to impossible, but when we asked our mentor why she was making things so difficult for us, her answer was a simple one. She began to explain that if she set the bar higher than was expected, we will work as hard as we can, getting as close to that bar as humanly possible. If we did not make it there, it’s ok because chances are we made it higher than she expected us to. This made total sense to me because I have always looked to this quote by Les Brown in times for inspiration, “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.” Now, you must be wondering why I am bringing up this story .. well the reason is, reaching adulthood is the exact same thing. When life throws us different responsibilities, we must rise to the occasion. The reason we do not feel the full extent of being an “adult” is simply because the waves of responsibility are generously spaced out. We are forever changing, eventually we will be fully assimilated into adulthood, reaching the bar … whether we realize it or not. When those waves are hitting us, we do not think of it as becoming an “adult,” it is simply doing what we need to do in order to survive. When my mentor set the bar high, she did so, knowing that we would do whatever was in our power to reach that bar.
For many, age is a major milestone in one’s life. Reaching 18, 21 or 65, just to name a few, is something that many people celebrate with great pride, and I agree it should be! However, age is just a number, it does not speak to your maturity level and the amount of responsibility you have. When you reach adulthood you have to become mature, and you will inevitably accumulate responsibility, whether it be a mortgage, or parenthood or something as small as paying your cell phone bill. However, the things that we enjoy doing for fun will not change so easily. I have always enjoyed sitting down with my sketch book and seeing what I could come up with, or playing the occasional video game, or just acting stupid with my friends. These things may seem immature and childish to some but we are who we are, and we do what we need to do in order to make it in this game we call “life”. Growing older is out of our control, but what we make of our lives from day to day is completely and totally in our control.
Time is out of our hands, it will move forward no matter what we do or say, but do not lose the current moment, because you will never be who you are in this current moment again. You cannot stop the “growing-up” from happening, so you have to take the best out of it.
~With all of that, and a box of chocolates … NEVER forget what it is like to be a kid!
