Okay, so everybody goes through it, right? They don't make all those coming-of-age movies and books because no one relates to them, do they? But what exactly does growing up mean?
I ask because I fee like I've gotten so many different definitions of it over my life.
My dad seems to think it means you have to accept the fact that life gets harder, and not better as you grow up. I can see where he's coming from--not finishing high school, getting drafted at 18, going to Vietnam--but, if that's all that happens when you grow up, what's the point? When I got my license, he told me not to be a baby and think it would be fun because the police weren't going to treat me with "kid gloves." When I graduated from high schoo, he told me the easy part was over. Things like that. Well, I refuse to believe that because not all mature adults are miserable.
I knew a girl in high school, who had skipped two grades and ended up in eighth grade with my class, who thought growing up meant acting properly and never joking around without some kind of intellectual force behind the jokes. Being two years younger than most of us, she was always telling us we were immature while we were talking and making all the stupid jokes that like kids and people do when they're hanging out. Likewise, a girl I went to college with said I "seemed older" than all of them because I was quiet and reserved and didn't ever feel the need to shout everything isaid in the most profane language I could manage and then laugh about it. The funny thing is, I felt like I was the "young one" in the group. So, does that mean maturity is about being serious? I don't beleive that either. It's just too shallow a view of maturity.
My cousins seem to think maturity means being a rebel. Every time I see them at family events, they're always saying things like "You can't tell me you're still Little Miss Innocent. You have to have a wild side by now." Well, no, I don't think I'm "Little Miss Innocent" and there doesn't have to be a "yet" factor to it. Since when is breaking every law I can think of, smoking and having sex a necessary step to growing up?
Similarly, the entertainment industry seems to think growing up is all about sex. Whenever one of those child stars want to shed their "little girl" image, they end up naked on the cover of some magazine. So, growing up means taking your clothes off in public? That's just ridiculous!
So, I have some idea of what I think "growing up" means, based on what it's not. But, I'm not sure I can completely put that into words. That just tells me I'm not grwon up quite yet. There are still a lot of things I have to learn about the world and whatnot, and I'm perfectly fine with that. The way I see it, God will do things in His time with me, and I'll just keep trying my est in life. I'll "grow up" eventually, whatever that means--not that anyone ever finishes "growing up" anyway.
Well, what're your definitions?
I have no idea. I agree with you that rebelling and taking off your clothes in public (which is a form of rebellion) or being 'serious' isn't growing up. Your dad is right. Getting older may be harder, but only because responsibility increases as age does. Maturity comes at different levels and it takes maturity to handle certain responsibilities. No one will ever reach full maturity. I can't tell you what my definition is because, quite frankly, I don't have one. If that makes any sense. :D
"Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays." ~George Balanchine
*Tatiana Romanov