All Children Must Grow Up...
Saturday, May 03, 2014
"All
children, except one, grow up." -J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Alright.
I'm not Peter Pan. And I don't care to be. I see that growing up is
necessary, and I see that there are many things about growing up that
give it a meaning, a purpose, and even a little bit of excitement
about it.
However,
I am discovering that being a teenager is just so much more
complicated than being a child... All sorts of things make this a
difficult time in one's life, and I don't understand why I ever
thought it would be cool.
Alright.
I suppose I do. The increased independence and freedom that comes
with being older is pretty nice. I like being trusted with bigger
things, and that I am able to do more and go to more places on my
own. (Not that I've ever been one of those people who wants too
much independence or responsibility...)
Yet
I can also see why C. S. Lewis called this "the silliest part of
one's life" in The Last Battle. Because it really is.
You're too old to truly be called a child anymore, but too young to
be a full-grown adult. And did I mention how complicated
things can get? Maybe- but it's so true, that it warrants mentioning
more than once. For certain.
When
you get to be a certain age (usually after about fifteen or so)
people start expecting you to be looking at colleges. Sure, three
years may seem like a long time at the moment, but in reality, it
goes by a lot faster than you might think it would. Which means that,
in spite of still feeling "young and free" (or at least
wanting to be), we start to feel pressure to get it all together and
have a plan made out for ourselves.
All
of the uncertainty and pressure to figure it all out gets so
overwhelming. You feel like you need to have it all together and be
ready to march off to college the minute you get that high-school
diploma. But does anyone really know exactly how their life will go
when they turn 18? Is it some magic number that turns you into an
adult overnight?
This
is definitely something that I've been working on lately, because I'm
starting to be more aware about what I plan to do when I grow up. I
do hope to go to college and have a career, because there is so much
that I am passionate about, and I want to use my passion to help
other people.
For
a long time, I've wanted to be a nurse. Lately though, I've been
entertaining the notion of becoming a physical therapist or physical
therapist assistant. The slight interest in a different field means
that I have to start looking at all sorts of things that I hadn't
even thought about before. Good PT programs, what I want for my
bachelor's degree, etc.
It's
so much to process. So much that you just have to get right. I
mean, this decides the course of your entire life, doesn't it?
Or does it...
At times, I want to go back to a few years ago and simply stay there. In a time and place where everything was simple, and black and white, and my biggest decisions involved whether to eat cereal or toast for breakfast.
But everyone must grow up. There's no way around it. So when I feel anxious about what the future (or even the present) holds for me, and when life just seems full of unnecessary complications, I take a step back. Take a deep breath. And remember who's really in control.
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