Growing Up

I remember wondering as a small kid, what it would feel like to be an adult. I had always thought that they somehow knew what to do at all times, and I believed adults were sources of answers.

They had it in them, always! Like the gut feelings.

Instinctively reacting to situations.

It felt like a set of protocols written on a manual, and the adults knew it by heart!

Got a big cut? Tie it with a cotton cloth.

Got a scratch? Put your hand in running water.

Got a paper cut? Just ignore, don't make a fuss.

I thought they always knew right from wrong and black from white. Worse, I believed they always lived by right ( at least the"good" people ).

But then I started growing up.

And the imperfections started showing up, or I started observing.

I must have overlooked the cracks and fissures previously because now I see shades of grey and not black or white. People often find themselves on the line between right and wrong and have a tough time deciding between what they needed and what they wanted.

Growing up gives freedom. Freedom to be different.

Growing up is realizing that there is a difference between ideal behaviour and reality.

All my years of childhood were spent assuming how idealistic behaviours were like straight lines and trying to learn how I should be walking on it every time.

Growing up, I am learning that the line was just one among many, laid in front of each newly born kid by the adults around them. Not only did I not have to stay on the line strictly, but sometimes, it was also not the line I should be walking on.

I realized growing up was swaying away from the line to define what we were. From then on, we draw our own lines and curves, zig-zags and patterns.

They are all beautiful as long as we draw it ourselves.