When you are little you can't wait to be older. You can't wait to grow up, to stay up later, to drive, to go to college. You have your whole life in front of you. So many plans you are just waiting to start and to accomplish. At a young age you think anything is possible and the world is your oyster and no one tells you otherwise. They forget to mention the hard about parts about growing up or maybe you are just too busy thinking about your future to notice.
1. Life goes on without you. When you are little it seems like you are the sun that your family revolves around. Plans are made with you in mind, parents stay home when you are sick or times are set around your schedule but as an adult your family's life does not stop for you anymore. If you're sick your mom still has to go to work, no one cares if you have a shift at work or a 10 page paper due, they aren't trying to accommodate you as much because now there are younger people who need to be worried about, younger kids who are thought about before you. It is not that your family cares less about you, its just priorities change.
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2. You have to be independent. As a baby your parents do everything for you and that continues throughout your childhood. As you get older you progressively get more and more independent, slowly but surely until you leave the house and you are thrust into doing everything on your own. You have to schedule your own doctor's appointments, tell the doctor on your own what the problem is, and fight your own battles. Your mom can't call to tell your landlord the sink is linking, now you have to do it on your own and you have to hold your own. You have to grow a backbone and handle your own business.
3. Home isn't what it used to be. After you move out of your parent's house and move into your own place, coming home is so much different. You're happy to be home and you're comfortable but it's not the home you have created for yourself. Your mom is still your mom and your house is still your house and the thing that has changed is you. You have experienced life in a different way. You start to answer to your own rules and live the life you want to live. You have now created your own home.
4. What you want out of life changes. In high school you only see a few years ahead. Maybe you have a job lined up, or your college acceptance letter and you already imagining what your major is going to be or when you are going to move out. Everything is short term but soon you have to start thinking of the bigger picture. Where is this job going to take you, are you going to marry your significant other, or what are you going to do with your major are all questions running through your head. Friends around you are starting to create a family, graduating, or starting a career and growing up seems more real everyday. Soon you have to pay car insurance and have to start looking into different health insurance plans.
5. You might not be friends with the people you were friends with in high school. In high school and even college there are people who seem like they are going to be your best friends forever. You hang out every day and seem to do everything together but some relationships change when you do not see each other everyday and that's okay. Sometimes you just grow out of friendships, you want different things in life and that's okay.
Growing up is sometimes daunting but you have to take everything day by day. It is part of life and everyone goes through it and do no be afraid to ask people for help.
