to grow or not to grow? haha!

Growing old, growing up… I’ve often taken fancy on these two ideas. Wondering how they differ from each other. Obviously I know growing old is with age, which brings us to the phrase, “Yes, you are growing old, but you’re not growing up.” (Ouch!)

I find maturity a really broad keyword. (pardon the word used, my head is still filled with work related setbacks…) Everyone argues mostly about this word. How does one really know when he/she’s mature enough? Is it by the way you act, talk, walk, eat, sleep, run, hide, (stop me now or I’ll go on for ages)… okay let’s do that again… How can you tell that one’s mature enough in life?

I find it funny when I saw one Lizzie McGuire series for the nth time where she wanted to baby sit because she says she’s old enough to do so, if she’s allowed to do this that would mean she’s maturing. The best part there would be her trying to talk her parents out to let her baby sit Mat (her younger brother) by starting the line with, “Please dad let me do it, Kate does it, I know I can do it… (goes to stomping of the feet, tantrums like attitude with matching squeaky scream) and I WANNA BABY SIT!!!!!!!” (talk about maturity ha?!)

But I’m not here to tell you the whole story because that would bring me out of the subject. So, back to redefining maturity:

It’s been three days since I started contemplating on this and sadly, I haven’t been convinced enough to actually write my thoughts until today. Along those three days, things happened and even the reads that I come across with coincidentally spoke of this so called Maturity related issues. Weird, I know.

*took a couple of excerpts from my Daily OM reads and tried to connect it with what life has to offer for all of us, or at least for me.*

1st Part: “As we bob and weave with the ebb and flow of life our roles change, but our true self remains constant.”

In other words, we have the ability to change our ways, the way we act and react with things but we will never be able to change our entire self? (True enough, I guess.)

I agree with this line because in this world of contradictions we all have a role to play to cope up with the environment that we live in. It’s not a matter of deceiving and being someone else not you, but sometimes we just have to be someone that most people would appreciate. That’s survival at the max. Fitting in.

2nd Part: “Fairy tales led us to believe that “happily ever after” was a final destination, the truth is that life is a series of destinations, mere stops on a long journey filled with differing terrain.”

Again, with the fascination of the never ending quest for that perfect ending from which I don’t intend to get if it means the end of what’s supposed to be happy. Get it? Like what I said on my previous post, would you really want to close the curtains when you know the happiness you seek is just about to start?

I guess I’d rather have those little satisfactions you get from the simplest things instead of the whole package. Because with those tiny blessings comes the best pleasures you’ll ever have. Put it all in together? And it can be a block buster feeling when you’ve come to the end of life.

3rd Part: “Our roles are just costumes that we inhabit and then shed. Each role we play gives us another perspective through which to understand ourselves and the nature of the universe.”

These roles mentioned here are not the people that we try to pretend, but who we create in the ever changing stages of our lives. I guess the real essence of growing up lies merely on how we appreciate the lessons that we get from every experience that we’ve gone through. In my point of view, maturity comes when we’ve acknowledged the fact that we’ve changed from one way to another. Our age adds up every year, but our life span is based on the new role that we’ve responsibly taken credit for. When we’ve gained full control of our selves, that’s when we become mature.

Lately, I’ve been getting compliments on how I’ve become more open minded and had been told a couple of times that I am *finally* maturing. (I smiled…)

I didn’t change much actually, that’s a fact. I’m a body, with a girl and a woman inside. It just so happened that I’ve managed to take on a new learning: “I learned to gain control over my emotions.” With that I’m now more capable of managing my reactions towards certain situations. But to throw away every childish things that I’ve become fond on would be hysterical because that would mean a threat on my own happiness. I believe that it is the child in each of us that makes the journey worthwhile; they are the ones that truly appreciate the good things that we encounter. I’m not going to grow out of that child; she’ll be with me forever, only this time, the woman will take over.

I’ll let the kid come out from time to time to keep the balance in my life. However, the woman would be at her side to make sure she doesn’t bump into playgrounds that’s full of unwanted germs. *grins*

I love the new role I’m in… how about you? What role are you in right now in this so called life?

Till next time! Continue being happy with who you are… cause that’s the only treasure worth keeping. :)