Growing up is as real as you make it.
It has always been a strange concept. Days, weeks, months go by and before you know it, people are giving appreciation to the date of your birth. Your birthday means another year has gone by, 365 more days in the books, an obligatory cake is consumed, and someone comments on how “grown up” you’ve gotten. Literally yes, your body is growing up, but what does that actually mean and when does it happen?
Growing up happens infinitely.
Granted, we are continuously growing up, every day, every hour, every minute, and every second. For a long time, life felt like a blur. Like it was just a matter of going through the motions, getting to the next step, the next level, the next year. Like background noise at a busy airport. Through middle school and high school it seemed as if everyone was impatiently waiting to magically grow up. And myself included, likely thought we knew just about everything and were damn sick of grown ups telling us otherwise. Well lets just make something clear real fast:
***News flash to my 16-year-old self, 75% of the time you were wrong and you 100% did not know everything!!
But that is the process of growing up. It is happening constantly and indefinitely. There’s not magic cut off point were you just turn into a “grown up” and that’s it. Done. No, we will never stop growing and that is one of life’s greatest treasures.
Growing up is accepting you are wrong, and you are indeed still learning.
There comes these small influential turning points when, to state the obvious, you reinvent yourself and become a different person than who you were a year ago… maybe even a month ago. Knowledge is power and learning is strength. Learn about yourself, about others; learn about some subject you have a clue about. Explore the ability to expand your own minds capacity.Don’t reject things you don’t understand. Explore it and learn.
Growing up is experiencing.
Every day we experience moments that indeed shape us into the person we become tomorrow. Yeah, not all of it is rainbows and butterflies, but you have the power to pick and choose what you take away from each moment. A sport may make you tougher, a family death may make you cherish the ones you love constantly even; we grow through these experiences. Experience as many feelings and places as your soul will let you. Expand your comfort zone and know it is ok to feel vulnerable, lost and even alone. This is never a permanent feeling. So don’t just sit at a computer screen scrolling the Internet of things you want to do and places you want to see. GO DO IT. Experience it.
Growing up is letting go of the past.
Regrets, mistakes, wishes; It’s so tempting to reach back into the depths our brains and reminisce on the things we could have, should have, and would have done. But that’s why we have the present. We are given new chances every day to create a new path.. The past is behind you, you accept that and even beyond that, you have learned something from it. Grown from it, perhaps.
Growing up is living.
Everyone of us is offered and unlimited amount of opportunities to make anything happen. This is life. It is happening now. Chase your dreams and achieve your goals. It becomes evident the older you get, that success is not just handed out to you like flyers. Majority of the people who you may envy because of their endless success or that live a lifestyle you desire, well 9/10 of these people WORKED for it. They didn’t just wait for their CEO position to be given to them or started their dream business on the beautiful coasts of the Caribbean by waiting for a magic sign. No. You have to want these things; radiate passion and hunger to achieve. Live exactly how you want to live and don’t settle for anything less.
Don’t give yourself a pity party if something doesn’t immediately work out. Be hopeful and optimistic about the future because truly anything can happen. So go ahead and "grow up".
