Growing up: Roaring 20’s

Let’s talk growing up this March, as I officially bid adieu to teenage. It’s finally D-Day today.

Hello everyone. Today, the 10th Of March 2019 is my 20th birthday. I have now existed for at least 2 decades,240 months,7300 days,175200 hours,10512000 minutes and 630720000 seconds. That is a long, long time. Today’s post is for all intents and purposes, my birthday post, where I look back, look ahead and at now, as well. Let’s begin.

20 years ago, I was a tiny, crying, very red baby just fresh into the world. It was still a whole another century and the world sat on the cusp of the 21st century with many hopes and dreams for the wave of modernity it represented. It was still the 90’s, the era of good television, great music and even better clothing. The 2000s were almost upon us, with their nightmare-inducing fashion choices, still good television and still decent music. It was a much simpler time.

20 years hence, I am not-so-tiny, still crying, red no longer, very much an adult and already a little bit over the world. We are nearly 2 decades into the 21st century, which is running at such a pace that each decade feels like a century in itself. The world is, in some ways a better place but still, a work in progress with so much left to fix. It is a very complicated time.

Not much has changed.

In these 20 years, I have learned and experienced so much. I have learned to talk and walk and eat and jump and run and so much more. I have completed 15 years of schooling,2 years of college and am so much wiser. (Questionable)I have trained in dance for 12 years and I’m still dancing. I have been to 9 countries,2 continents and have travelled to and seen a sizeable(yet tiny) chunk of the world. I have read and watched beautiful stories. I have opinions and thoughts and likes and dislikes. In these 20 years, that very red baby has become a person.

Turning 20 is a monumental birthday. It signals the end of another decade as well as of adolescence. I have grown a lot in this decade as well as my teenage years(Perhaps not in height but mentally yes) but I am honestly delighted to say goodbye to my teenage and all the ‘joys’ that puberty brings. I can, however, no longer blame my hormones for my behaviour, which is a tragedy. Thank you teenage, for making me the strong-willed woman I am today.

20 for me is a birthday full of hope. I am finally entering my 20’s, the peak of my youth, the beginning of the years in which I find the life I will live henceforth. I have no idea where I will end up and this is the starting point. I will finish my formal education( Education itself is lifelong, only formally will I be done), I will get my first actual job(I have actually had a non-paid writing job for a not-for-profit organisation already), I will live in my first house, I may even get engaged and/or married!  How crazy is it that all these milestones of my life happen in just these 10 years!

All these are such “grown-up” things in my head and hence I find myself struggling a little with the concept of growing up around this birthday. I am no longer a “barely-adult” adult, now I am a real one even if I don’t necessarily feel like one. I want to take my 20 years of existing, take the best out of them and take it with me as I enter this phase of my life. I would like some more optimism, as the pressure of adulthood, as well my teenage rebellion, has taken quite a lot of it away already. I would like to know it’s okay to depend on people sometimes, okay to miss people and so great to feel love and be loved. I want to hope and have childlike imagination with responsibility and courage. With all this and much more, I launch into my roaring 20’s, here I come!

THIS POST’S QUESTION:  Are you going to/have turned 20? What did/are you feel(ing) like? Comment below with what you think about it,I’d love to hear from you!

 

Impending Doom.

Let’s talk about adulthood today.

With less than 4 months left to my own 18th birthday and all my friends and classmates turning 18 already, the thoughts of really being a grown up and coming of age have started to gain a strong foothold within me. It is sometimes scary, sometimes something to look forward to, sometimes nerve-racking and sometimes liberating.

With these comes a wave of strong nostalgia and wrapping my head around the passage of time.Till I was 10, I couldn’t wait to grow up.Time seemed to go slowly and I was acutely aware of each passing month.When I turned 11, time suddenly sped up and before I knew it, I was 14  and off to a new school and for the first time in my life I felt myself wondering,”Where did all this time go?”The same happened all through high school.And even now, am going I still find myself wondering how in the world I am going to be 18 years old.

The best part of it for me currently is to escape the constant tussle between being a child and an adult that being a teenager is all about.I’ll still be a teenager for two more years but no one will accuse me of growing up too fast or acting too grown up when I am a child or behaving like a child when I should be more mature .(On second thought, maybe I’ll still not be escaping this one.)

Adulthood.The sheer act of being 18 years old.Still, a teenager but also carrying the title of being an adult.That is what I am approaching now.And I still wonder what the whole fuss is about.I still feel the same, probably still will.And what all does being an adult really offer? Voting rights( in most countries), more independence, more responsibility and to act more mature and deal with ‘real’ problems.But with great independence comes great responsibility.( In the style of the Spiderman movies circa 2002)

But does it mean I can’t read young adult fiction when I’m a not so young adult ? Or I can’t watch animation films or cartoons because they are for children, something I will effectively not be anymore?  Can I not crack poor jokes anymore because that is childish?These thoughts scare me, hence the title.Seeming doomlike, because I still enjoy animation movies and like cracking poor jokes at times and I love young adult fiction.

Also, as a reminder to you all of how old you are(Why would I suffer with these nostalgia waves and realisations of passage of time alone?) As of next year all the quintessential 90’s kids would not be kids anymore, us being the 1999 bunch.

Talking of the 90’s I would like to conclude, with hope and with what Monica said to Rachel in Friends when she had her own rite of passage of sorts,” Welcome to the real world! It sucks! You’re going to love it!”

THIS POST’S QUESTION: When did you first realise that time was passing too fast or that you were now a grown up?  Comment below with what you think about it,I’d love to hear from you!