Growing up is such an odd experience. When you’re a kid you feel like you'll never grow up, but then one day you wake up and you’re a full grown adult. I remember watching the movie 13 Going On 30 and feeling like it was so unrealistic, but now not so much. There are obviously aspects of it that aren’t so realistic, like the magic fairy dust and the time travel, but there are many things that resonate with the struggles of leaving childhood.
Your Parents Aren’t Superheroes
When I was a kid, I used to think my parents were invincible and could never do any wrong, but that quickly changed as I grew older. When my parents got divorced and saw the ugliness, it tainted my perception of them in a colossal way. When my parents would put my sister and I in the middle of their money battles, or their fights over time spent with us, it took a toll on our parent/child relationship.. Beyond their childish behavior, I never thought my parents would grow old or pass away, but my father kicked the bucket way earlier than any of us ever expected. That changes a person, especially when it happens in your formative years. I now cherish my mother’s presence in my life. I am grateful to live close to my mother and whenever we meet for dinner to catch up, I simply cannot imagine a world in which I won’t be able to tell her all about my life and the stupid shit that takes over my mind. My anxieties, boys, school, friends, no matter what it is, whenever I want to tell my mom about my life it feels like I'm back in third grade and she's picking me up from school and listening to me vent.
My father passed away when I was 16, and when you’re 16 life should be easy, but things got very real very quickly. It caused a huge shift in my perception of life and the world around me. Another unforeseen effect from my father's passing was the sudden realization that my mom wasn’t perfect either. Growing up, it was always easy to compare my mother to my father and he made her look like the perfect mom, but when I no longer had someone to compare her to, it was a tough pill to swallow that she wasn’t a perfect parent either.
So that realization combined with growing up taught me that my mother has her own life and me getting older also meant that she was getting older. She is now sixty years old and I still think of her as 45 (along with the fact that she’s a total milf).
Your Siblings Will No Longer Be Your Roommates
One of the biggest hurdles of getting older for me was my sister moving far away from our hometown.We grew up together, learned from each other, fought almost everyday and to see her leave for college was really hard for me. Since my sister, Julia, and I were three years apart in school we spent one year of high school together. I got used to driving together, waking up together, we had a whole routine that we fell into. So when I dropped her off at college, it was a huge loss. In the following months, I was really sad and wasn't exactly sure why. I thought I was just an angsty teen going through a rough patch. One day I went to see my guidance counselor, and she pointed out that my sister leaving and my sadness were brought on at the same time. It finally clicked in my mind why I was so upset, having my sister in my life was a big relationship and it suddenly became long distance. I was going to have to do all the things we used to do together, alone. I no longer had someone to back up my fights with my mom, or eat dinner with when no one else was around. It was an even harder pill to swallow realizing that there probably wouldn’t be a time where she and I would live under the same roof ever again.
You And Your Friends Will Feel Old Quickly
My friend and I were just talking the other night about how we still feel like we're in high school. It’s the weirdest feeling to grow older but still feel so young. I know, I sound senile when I say I feel old when I haven’t even lived into my mid twenties yet, but I genuinely can’t believe im 21. I feel like yesterday I was turning 16 and learning to drive. I still drive like I just learned how, but we won't talk about that.
The fact that my friends and I graduated from our highschool almost three years ago blows my fucking mind. If you don’t know me personally, I went to the same school my entire life. I grew up going to school every single day and doing after school activities all within an acre. I recall being in elementary school seeing seniors, and thinking they were so old and had their whole lives together, when in reality they probably didn’t. I thought that I would never get to that age, and I would stay young forever, fast forward a decade, and I was the one waving hello to the little kids on the day of my graduation. It was a full-circle moment considering I remember when kids ten years older than me graduated.
As time goes by, it seems to move faster. This can either be scary or exciting. We need to make a conscious choice to be excited to wake up and live everyday with an open mind. If not, there won't be life to live anymore and you will have wasted your best years. Yes, it is easier said than done, but as the younger generation, we need to live life without limitations. Do the thing, kiss the person, take the job, move to another country, do what makes you happy, because before you know it, it'll be gone.
i love this!!