the truth about growing up

I spent the better part of my teenage years (and my college years) dreading 'growing up.' My 18th birthday was nothing more than another year, a year that I didn't feel any more like an adult. With each candle added to my cake, I found myself Peter Panning more and more, clinging to my youth as much as possible.

At 22 I found myself graduated, unemployed, and lost to an indescribable degree. I never looked forward to entering the 'real world' and, consequently, didn't adequately prepare myself for it.

It's been a year and I am now looking forward to the 'real world' as much as ever. What happened?
I started by asking myself why.

Why was I so afraid or in denial to grow up?
For me, I thought growing up meant becoming dull. I thought it meant never having fun again. I thought it meant that I'd become this robot, a shell of the vivacious and easy-going person I think myself to be. I focused so much on what being an adult wasn't instead of what it was.

'Growing up' is a part of life, a part to be embraced, a part of your life where you become a more developed, wiser, truer version of yourself. No one said growing up means you have to lose your child-like nature. It doesn't mean your creativity has to be stifled. It doesn't mean you have to forfeit everything you know and love.

Stop wasting time digging your heels in the ground - lift your feet and fly!

Explore. Learn. Grow...up :)

xoxo erikah