Growing up is full of delicious ironies. Namely, the fact that the one dependable constant in life is that things change.
Ok, I lied earlier. Those ironies aren't delicious. They're painful, awkward, usually uncomfortable, sometimes vastly rewarding. And to everyone's disappointment, they're not over until life itself is over.
What makes now, this current stretch leading up into the prime of your life, feel as if you are about to slide back into the childish arena of adolescence? Some people fight tooth and nail, claw fiercely at this slippery slope, so as to hold onto their newfound independence and adulthood. They act like children, even more foolish than during their tumultuous adolescence, in their attempts to show the world how much they deserve to proceed forward. One more irony to check off the list.
I have never considered adulthood fleeting. In fact, it seems like the largest span of life imaginable. So why do others feel so radically different? They are in a rush to grow up and socialize in a grown up world, get apartments, have babies, all the while getting wasted in secret underage hangouts in the least mature manner possible. Another great irony of this transformative time.
Sometimes I feel like the only person who rejects their adult status. I'm a fake!, I think. I'm not as worldly as I should be! I've barely been around the block. I have stress dreams about marriage, and I'm homesick more often than ever. Worst yet, I'm a virgin and I'm moderately embarrassed about it. Putting these thoughts to words makes me seem closer to cat-collecting oddity than fully-functioning adult, and yet I feel more clear-headed than almost anyone else I know.
Sure, I'll come home and stay with my parents on breaks. It's better than signing long-term leases with short-term boyfriends, in the name of making more adult decisions. I may still have a elementary grasp on how to flirt with boys, but I'd prefer to find my liquid courage in a bar a few years down the road than settle for the loud and crowded house parties of the here and now.
The biggest irony I've discovered in life is that change doesn't come in with a crash or a bang. It is slow, silent, barely perceptible. And unfortunately, it is usually mandated by your conscious choices. It doesn't matter how quickly you want to jump into life, or dive into the deep end. When you're truly there, you'll have waited enough to know. Personally, I think that we should all be glad that hindsight is 20/20. Otherwise, many of us would have absolutely no grasp on life's realities at all.
Ok, I lied earlier. Those ironies aren't delicious. They're painful, awkward, usually uncomfortable, sometimes vastly rewarding. And to everyone's disappointment, they're not over until life itself is over.
What makes now, this current stretch leading up into the prime of your life, feel as if you are about to slide back into the childish arena of adolescence? Some people fight tooth and nail, claw fiercely at this slippery slope, so as to hold onto their newfound independence and adulthood. They act like children, even more foolish than during their tumultuous adolescence, in their attempts to show the world how much they deserve to proceed forward. One more irony to check off the list.
I have never considered adulthood fleeting. In fact, it seems like the largest span of life imaginable. So why do others feel so radically different? They are in a rush to grow up and socialize in a grown up world, get apartments, have babies, all the while getting wasted in secret underage hangouts in the least mature manner possible. Another great irony of this transformative time.
Sometimes I feel like the only person who rejects their adult status. I'm a fake!, I think. I'm not as worldly as I should be! I've barely been around the block. I have stress dreams about marriage, and I'm homesick more often than ever. Worst yet, I'm a virgin and I'm moderately embarrassed about it. Putting these thoughts to words makes me seem closer to cat-collecting oddity than fully-functioning adult, and yet I feel more clear-headed than almost anyone else I know.
Sure, I'll come home and stay with my parents on breaks. It's better than signing long-term leases with short-term boyfriends, in the name of making more adult decisions. I may still have a elementary grasp on how to flirt with boys, but I'd prefer to find my liquid courage in a bar a few years down the road than settle for the loud and crowded house parties of the here and now.
The biggest irony I've discovered in life is that change doesn't come in with a crash or a bang. It is slow, silent, barely perceptible. And unfortunately, it is usually mandated by your conscious choices. It doesn't matter how quickly you want to jump into life, or dive into the deep end. When you're truly there, you'll have waited enough to know. Personally, I think that we should all be glad that hindsight is 20/20. Otherwise, many of us would have absolutely no grasp on life's realities at all.
