The Good about Growing Up?

I thought today an appropriate topic would be the whole idea of growing up. The end of senior year seems to racing toward us, and after discussing in class the different types of boundaries and experiences people endure when they are a teenager it seemed like a good idea to weigh the pros and cons on both ends. To start off with the cons of growing up, the biggest one is always - more responsibility. Birthday after a birthday, suddenly our lives become more and more important and we as individuals must learn to achieve a balance. This balance includes us being responsible for making our own decisions, of who we want to be, and who we are (as if we can actually pinpoint what that actually means) and both our successes and our mistakes. We learn to do our own laundry, drive by ourselves, get our own jobs, be our own person, take responsibility for our own mistakes and not blame others and so on and so on. I suppose some people do like doing things for themselves but in reality it is a whole lot more easy when someone else takes care of you and does it all for you. In addition to the responsibilities I find when growing up in some respects, learning can be scary. Naturally as a human being we pick up on all sorts of new things and store and make sense of them in our brains but our whole outlook on life changes when we grow from an infant. Children still ignorant, still selfish, and to themselves also have the freedom of their innocence. I find one of the hardest things while growing up is realizing that this magical world we thought was this amazing place isn't as great as it was made up to be. We learn that there are all sorts of bad people, and bad things that they do, and that happen all the time, is one of the hard realities of life, and these people are as human as we are. So while balancing responsibility you also must endure the cruelties of your fellow mankind.

The contrast however is but one simple word and this pro is the sole reason why we endure which is - freedom. Freedom of the mind, to explore, to learn, to experience, and to do. If you are constantly being sheltered or taken care of and don't discover more of the world your mind is incarcerated. You are stuck. You are stuck in the fake magical world that you believe to be true and don't get to discover both the cruelties and wonderful aspects of reality. When one can be responsible for themselves they can evidently go wherever they desire (ignoring financial expenses) as they can take care of them self and evidently desire on their own. To be responsible for yourself is basically taking the reigns upon your own survival. Up until a certain point your parents protect you (and continually want to) but only to an extent until you must be able to do so yourself. With freedom you may stay up late, explore more places, meet new people, try new things etc. etc. I think freedom is a very important and large aspect about growing up as it is what we fight for, what we must be ensured, and what many are stripped of. Freedom is very valued.

All in all, growing up is hard. It's a real struggle to discover who you are, learn things, be things, discover things, and bear the burden of responsibility and endure mankind but we do it anyways. Why? Why do we do it? We do it because the freedom that growing up and continuing to live allows us to do is experience more,be more and ultimately live more moments, that we so desperately wish to do. So in exchange for the harsh realities of the world, we get to live more of it.

Han Van