Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Growing up


Growing up--when you're a kid, it's all you want to do. You count down the days until your next birthday. You wish for each milestone to come faster. You can't wait for school to be over. Now, I know I'm not old by any means, but it's interesting to see your life start to change--for your biggest worry not to be what you're going to do Friday night or whether the guy in your biology class really was smiling at you.

I never really worried about growing up. But I must admit that, for the first time, it's scary. You start to see the people you love the most change and grow older. You wonder what life and family will be like in 20 years--not what your life will be like when you're out of college. Because you're there. The time after college and graduate school was much different than how it is now. Even though those decision were huge, and the ones I made directly after were even bigger, each decision I make now is much different. Better in many ways. Scarier in many others.

As someone I love dearly said, "When you're young, your whole life is about the pursuit of fun. Then, you grow up and learn to be cautious. You could break a bone or a heart. You look before you leap, and sometimes you don't leap at all because there's not always someone there to catch you. And in life, there's no safety net. When did it stop being fun and start being scary?" 

My life is still very much fun. I wouldn't go back, and I wouldn't change anything...well that's mostly true. But...I must say, the mid 20s are a transition. It's one I'm happily figuring out how to adjust to. And I hope I don't ever forget what it's like to be 13...

(images from Google)

1 comment:

P*P*P said...

I've sometimes thought it's sad how I've grown up (haha), but my life has been so wonderful, I guess I can't imagine it any other way and every transition (even the not so great ones) are all worth it! :)