Grow Up Already!

Isn’t this what you always hear? Even before your birth, the world starts waiting for the day when you’ll grow up into the young dashing person they expect you to be. If you’re a boy, you’re expect to behave like a man – talk with respect, don’t play with toys, shave, comb your hair, study, work, earn. And if you’re a girl well then they search for the woman in you who sits straight, looks beautiful, dresses well, talks politely and smiles before saying anything.

We live in a world where we are all in a rush to get somewhere. Where, you ask? I’m sure no one really knows the answer to that. But it’s all a race. So you can’t really afford to be a child, you know. You don’t have time to embrace those childish fantasies because if you stop for even a second, you’ll be left behind in the race to get wherever it is that you’re supposed to be. (Please tell me too if you somehow figure it out! Thanks!)

So yeah, grow up already! This is no time to be a kid. Instead, I say, it is the time for you to be YOU. (Ah! Plot twist!) Who says you have to be a child or an adult? Over the last few years, if there’s anything that I’ve learnt it would be that the world will ALWAYS have something or the other to say. We have a very famous song here in India which says ‘Kuch toh log kahenge… Logo ka kaam hai kehna.’ (People will always find something to say because that’s just what they do!) So be you, do whatever the hell it is that you want to do. Run, stop, laugh, cry, jump, sleep – do whatever you feel like doing.

Losing your identity in this race doesn’t affect you alone. It affects the people around you too. They lose the one they once fell in love with. Sure, they’re probably the ones pushing you to get ahead but take it all one step at a time – a step that allows you to work at your own pace.

The only thing to keep in mind is that there is always balance required to maintain the equilibrium in the world. So work hard, but don’t lose yourself along the way.