What's it like to grow up? We've all either done it or will eventually do it. And it's not just adding years on to the years you've already lived. It's adding experiences, opportunities, responsibilities, places you've gone and people who have come in and out of your life and so on. It's a lot. But, for some reason, in today's culture, growing up is portrayed exclusively as a bad and scary thing. Growing up means knowing pain and knowing evil and facing a whole bunch of responsibilities that are often too much to handle. But that's not everything. Growing up isn't just a bad thing. It can be a good thing too. It may take a little work, but here are just a few reasons that it's not too scary to grow up.
1. You can get things done.
While having extra things on one's plate might not be the most preferable, being able to do more can be a pretty great advantage. You can get things done in the fun sense. You can get your own food and go to concerts, parks, parties, etc. Or you can get things done in a more productive sense. You can go to college. You can get your degree. You can apply for jobs. You can do your homework. You can get up and get out and do things for your future. It's like that song from Tangled: "When Will My Life Begin?" Well, you can make your life begin.
2. You can go wherever you want.
This kind of goes along with being able to in general do more things, but it is altogether an important point. You can go wherever you want. This could be your local grocery, or the city next to your own. It could be that state on the other side of the country or it could be that exotic country you've only seen from pictures on the internet. It's not about travel. It's about seeing the world and knowing that there's more beyond your doorstep or beyond the halls of your high school.
3. You can eat whatever you want.
This can be deemed as either good or bad, but, for the purpose of this article, I'm going to deem it a good thing. You can have that large cheese pizza at midnight if you're starving for it, or you can master that diet you've been planning by ordering a salad for lunch. It may be a small step, but it's just another reminder of your freedom, of a reminder that your life is in your own hands.
4. You can be whoever you want.
Growing up means you have to start making decisions. Where you're going to live, where you're going to work, who you will marry, whether or not you will marry, your political party, whether or not you'll join a political party. You have a lot of decisions. But they're your decisions, and they're going to all add up to this wonderful adult that you're going to realize that you've become one day. And those decisions don't belong to anyone else. Because in growing up you are no longer a mini version of your parents or a carbon copy of who your middle school peers were. In growing up, you will eventually morph into your own person. Which is pretty awesome.
5. You can see things from a different angle.
This comes with more education. More experiences. You don't just see one way to solve things and you don't just see one way of living. As a kid you acted by example, by following what your teachers, parents and guardians did. But as an adult you can begin to recognize when there is a different solution, a different path, a different way of doing things. And from that will spring inventions and revolutionary ideas. From that springs the future.
6. You can see others from a different angle.
This goes along with the whole having-a-mind-of-your-own thing. We don't just see villains and we don't just see heroes. We see human beings with unique stories of their own. We look to understand more about others than just what we see. Out of understanding of others' cultures and backgrounds and why they live the way they do, we can bring about tolerance. Out of this tolerance also springs the future.
7. You can hurt a lot, but you can love a lot too.
This is a big part of growing up. That part where you pass that mental threshold to where you are slowly able to take in more and understand more information and emotions. In this we are able to understand more pain and more loneliness and more despair and more stress and more sorrow. But with all of this sadness comes a lot of happiness, a lot of excitement, a lot of love. And compared to all of the sadness, all of that love starts looking even better.
8. You can make a difference in the world.
Just as I said, you can get things done. You don't just learn about problems at school and see all of the problems on TV. As you grow older, you are not only involved in society to perhaps help prevent these problems, but you can get out and stop them, or find someone who can. You can do something. You can make a difference.
9. You can show thanks to your heroes.
This also goes along with being able to get things done. One of your heroes' sole purposes is to shape you into a good human being who would make a positive mark on society. Being able to get out and chase your dreams not only allows you to give back to your heroes with actual gifts or other symbols of thanks, but just by succeeding will be a thanks in of itself.
10. You can be someone else's hero.
Heroes are a big thing about youth. You have your typical heroes. Superman. Batman. Iron Man. Then you have your famous people-turned heroes. Hannah Montana. J.K. Rowling. Oprah Winfrey. And you have your role models-turned heroes. Your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, teachers, coaches. And once you grow up, though you may not look to your heroes for guidance as you once did, you can become a role model yourself. Just as all of those people were a role model for the person you became, you can help to shape a young mind as well. You can be a hero too.
11. You've still got a lot of time ahead of you.
This is probably the best part. Looking back now on those years that you deem as your lost childhood, you may have that passing thought that your time has run out on your golden years. Your vitality. But it hasn't. You have just begun. You may be afraid that you'll never get things done and that you'll never get to travel where you want to travel and that you'll never end up as someone else's hero like you want to, but the best part about growing up is that you will continue to grow up and mature and learn no matter what age. You have time. It's okay to grow up.
