Thread: Growing Up

I think almost everybody who reads this will agree that when he or she was a child, they always wanted to grow up faster.

I also think that almost everyone who reads this will agree that when he or she was a teenager, the wished they could be a child again.

When you're a child, you're gathering experience about the world in very small amounts. Everyone only tells you the good things that are happening. there's no war, no political arguements, no racism, sexism, feminism, segregation, global warming, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes or any of the other things that are important in our lives now. There's the first day of Preschool/Kindergarten/First grade, boys having cooties, learning the alphabet and the times tables.

We never thought about what outfit we were going to wear the next day, how our hair looked in the morning, how bad we looked in our school photos, how much weight we'd gained or lost...We thought about how cool we'd look in our superman and tinkerbell costumes on Halloween and how much candy we'd get, or what we wanted for Christmas (the new barbie doll was just so awesome!).

When did we cross the line from childhood and innocence to teenagerdom and rebellion? I'd probably have to pin it on 5th grade. You're in your last year of elementary school, you're about to start a whole new school...a whole other world. There's no naptime, no recess, no cubby hole...There's lockers and language arts and social studies and, most important of all, you're on the brink of being a teenager.

After a while, about half a year into 6th grade, you start to lose interest in going to the park and watching your favorite cartoons on Saturday morning...you start to want to sleep in on Christmas morning, you need to take a longer time in the shower, so you can wash your hair better. You need to constantly buy new clothes to keep up with the latest fashions and your latest growth spurt. You want make up and skateboards, basketballs and swimsuits, the new sneakers and high heels...And you can't get along with your parents anymore.

That goes on for 6th and 7th grade...Then comes 8th grade. You are the top of the food chain. Everyone else is below you and you are the biggest and the best. You own the school. You're the coolest. You look cool, act cool, people are trying to be like you...All this eventually gets into your head, manifests there and that is when you really become a 'Freshman'.

After 8th grade, you're the bait again. You go from being at the top of the food chain to the bottom. While in middle school, you'd started to notice the opposite sex a lot more. There were those awkward moments in the cafeteria when you both looked at each other for longer than 3 seconds. Then your buddies would punch your arm or nudge you and start guffawing. You'd then blush and turn your head away, embarassed. Now, you're in high school. The boys are cuter, more mature and ready (for the most part) for actual relationships. The girls are easily swooned, more inclined to actually wanting to go out with you and they've grown into pretty young ladies.

This, my friends, is really where the hormones kick in. I know we've all heard about puberty and how all these hormones are released into your bodies and how it screws up your mind and is hell for the first few years of teenagerdom. Yea, that's basically happening all through middle school, but that's only the awkward changing over period. Sure, you've noticed the other sex, but they were just there, really...never something you'd actually want to be with.

It's a whole different ball game in high school. Your hormones are free and undisturbed by those stupid high voices and growing boobs and bottoms. Hormones are on the playing field now, and they've been pent up for so long that they really desperately need to get out.

I guess that's why older people always say that their high school years were the best years of their lives. In high school, you're free to roam around and though it can be hell for some, it's heaven for the others.

Now, hormones aren't the only things you get when you enter puberty (or high school). You get a firmer grasp of the world and it's surroundings. You start to actually listen to the news when your parents turn it on in the morning. You start to develope an interest in current events, just so you can seem smart when talking to other people in your school.

The high school years really fly by in a cloud of hormones, realization and misery. But didn't Proust once say that at the end of his life, he looked back on all his years and found that the times when he was suffering the most, were the ones he'd never want to give up? Because, if you don't suffer in life, there's nothign to live for, is there? If everything is all peachy all the time, you've got nothing to really strive for.

So, all you little children and pubertising adolescents, read this as a warning. Don't grow up too fast, or you'll lose all the innocence you probably never had. But don't take too much time growing up, because then you'll never suffer enough to make your life worth living.

*Claps*

Enjoyed it. Not sure if it's normal to comment on non-fiction pieces or not, but whatever. Good job.

Haha, thanks.

I appreciate the praise for my work...

Although, granted, most of that was typed up in a frenzy of annoyance at some people, but most of it was true...at least, in my life.

since you started out making two sweeping assumptions that did/do not apply to me, you lost me from the git-go... imo, you should never tell the reader what he/she will or will not think/feel/do...

I fixed that...