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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Growing Up

Me and Cailie got into a discussion today, about growing up. The argument is as follows: children who are forced to make grown up decisions earlier will get in more trouble at an earlier age. She used the example of herself, asking for a doll when she was 10 years old, and her cousin asked for a digital camera. Cailie's aunt shook her finger at her mom and told her that her daughter needed to grow up. A few years later, the cousin was 20 and pregnant twice already.

This is kind of an exaggeration of what could happen. But who's to say? I have a friend, a very sweet girl, I met in the FA building. I wondered who she was constantly, and finally got to know her. I found out that she was taking lessons from Professor, being homeschooled, and was about 13. This blew me away. She acted with the maturity of a college student... I also began to notice that she didn't bring any friends around. Becuase she spent all of her time in this building, dedicating herself to this piano program, she didn't know any other life. All of her friends are college students. Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with being homeschooled or dedicated to piano, or not having many friends. But she is a charming girl. She is funny, outgoing, and beautiful, and has so much potential. I just am sad to see her forced to grow up so quickly. She is taught to act at least 5 years older than she is... and with no background experience of school and other activities, how is she even to know how a regular 13 year old would act in certain situations? To watch her struggle through this world with no one her age to relate to, and no other social activities to participate in, is hard.

I also had a friend growing up who had a similiar issue. She was an only child, put into a world of adults and adult behaviors. Naturally, she was very mature for her age. She thought she had it all planned out: which college to go to, how to run her life, who to date, what she liked... yet on a whim, she could completely change her mind. When she started feeling her life was too structured, she began to plead and cry out for the child side of her. Then she would suddenly become reckless and childish to compensate for her fears of growing up. She is happy and contently married now, but I still wonder if she was forced to make these grown up decisions before she was ready.

I am not trying to say that anything these people do is inappropriate. I very much love all of these people... I just feel very strongly that people need to act their age sometimes. We dont need to walk about not being mature, but we can certainly give responsibility a break every once and a while. We can mingle with others our own age, and take part in experiences that help us grow. Growing up is a learning process, and if we don't get it line upon line, or fill in the gaps, we will be limited.

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