This December I complete my eighteen revolutions around the sun. That is, I turn into an adult as per muggle standards. As I type this, I question myself what’s so exciting in this. After all, a great deal of people must be reaching this mark every day. What’s so special about my journey to adulthood?
It takes me fraction of a second to realise that my answer lies in my question: that it is my adulthood. I am turning into an adult for the first and possibly the only time and am not going to witness this change in these senses again.
Every child has sometime dreamt of being an adult – making his own living, owning that sense of “freedom”, having some sort of wings to be anywhere and anything in the world. Adulthood, for a young one, is like a direct ticket to a freer self and a more open world and an indirect one to his plethora of dreams.
I’m sure I’ve been a child at some point during my life. As I turn into an adult at the end of these fifteen days, how do I feel about it? Having had those same thoughts about “freedom” and “openness” during my childhood, how do I now perceive the idea of actually being just at the threshold of that dreamed place? These are some of the questions I seek the answers to.
Adulthood is about many things. It is about getting powers as much as it is shedding some. I can compare it to being from a state of plant and little flower visited by butterflies and other beauties, to a state of tree, which has its own demeanor and strengths. Adulthood, from my standpoint, just like childhood, looks like a mixed bag of pros and cons: having the strength and ability to achieve things that I thought of while stargazing and at the same time biding goodbye to privileges, cares and carefreeness that a child is entitled to.
Once upon a time, I went on a journey that, when started, seemed too long. It was quicker to pass than expected and I came to realise about it having passed only when I was minutes away from the destination. Last year, I was on a trip to a cool mountainous region for a five days. The night before the start of journey, I felt like I would be there forever. After only a day had passed after my return, I recalled moments I wasted and could have made precious there and could have enjoyed a bit more.
Growing into an adult seems to be like such journeys. Is this period, many times in length than childhood, going to be as legendary as I have often thought? Do I think of it as if it will be an unlimited treasure? Am I equipped enough to spend my adulthood in such a way that I do not regret like I did at the end of that five-days journey?
My adulthood will be like the adulthood of many in many ways and unique, again, in many ways. But I do not want to go with this flow without being mindful of it, with indifference. Dear life, I am ready for challenges that you’re going to post in my way, but I want you to know that this journey is not something that is coming to me unawares. This is something that I take and I accept it at will, with my best possible prior preparation.
I still have fifteen days before I get the stamp of an adult. I still have fifteen days to enjoy. At the other end of them, I have something to go in quest of. But before that, fifteen days. Of “Childhood” and adolescence.
I will also take care that when someday – if that day comes – when I am writing a piece called “Fifteen Days from adulthood”, I am in more smiles that tears, and satisfied with my progress.
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