On Growing Up.

Whenever I feel stressed, sad, tired or heartbroken, I can’t help but think of how much easier everything seemed to me when I was younger. The world… and life in general was much simpler.

Being a child gives you some form of freedom that adults don’t typically enjoy. When you make mistakes it is perceived as innocence and immaturity… you can be excused for not knowing any better. You lose this privilege little by little as you grow older. The more you know, more is also expected from you. As an adult, people are less sympathetic. It is easy to be criticized as being immature for your age, stupid, ignorant or inconsiderate. There seems to be a standard for the age you are in and when you fall short of that standard, everyone seems to notice. Someone always has something to say.

I find that our responsibilities and priorities also change as we grow older. As children, we enjoy having fewer responsibilities. But that also meant fewer privileges. While our responsibilities mainly revolved around school work and household chores which were relatively easy to accomplish, we didn’t get much in return for it aside from good grades and our parents’ approval. Some enjoyed an allowance for their hard work but most of us (if not all of us) relied on our parents to provide us with our daily needs. We relied on them to buy as the things we wanted. We even relied on our parents to make decisions for us such as which school we were going to attend and what we were going to bring to school for lunch.

Life gets more complicated the older we get. Suddenly, things aren’t as black and white as they used to be. We worry about our careers, the bills we have to pay, our relationships with other people, and the decisions we have to make. Experience tells us to be wary of others, to be careful about what we say and do because we know that there will always be a consequence to every decision. As we grow, we learn what it is like to strive for something and be disappointed, to wear our heart on our sleeve and get hurt, to realize that there are things beyond our control. We learn our limits, that there are things in life we cannot explain, and that people will sometimes do things we cannot always understand. We strive to have the things we want knowing full well that life has a tendency to throw a few surprises here and there.

Yes, life is so much more complicated now than when I was a child. But it also means so much more to me. I can appreciate the good times because I know what it is like to go through the bad. I know I that I am bound to go through some hiccups, but I also know that things have a way of working out. I’ve met a number of wonderful people and I’ve had some pretty amazing experiences. There are things I know now that I didn’t know before and I am still learning everyday. I’ve had my share of surprises but I’m learning to roll with it. I have had my heart broken but I’ve also had a lot of love. I’ve been disappointed many times but I’ve also had my share of accomplishments. I’ve shed a lot of tears but I’ve also had a lot of laughter.

What I’m trying to say is this: Life gets more complicated as we grow older… but with it comes a lot of good.