Time goes by really fast, but it feels like yesterday that I told my mother “I want to grow up”. I‟m sure most of you would have said almost the same to your parents. There would have also been instances when you would take your mom‟s or dad‟s office clothes and shoes maybe wear some lipstick on and act as if you are all grown up. We‟ve all had that period of time in life, I did too! But it was only some time back did I realize the depth of growing old. Having lived a very carefree life, stepping out of the doors of home and school and stepping into the real world got me thinking; “why did I ever want to grow up?”
We all want to grow up fast, but when we come to one stage of life, we tend to want to go back, to those golden days when we wanted our dads to drive faster than the passing train to see who would go faster, days when we would jump on a trampoline for hours and would refuse to come out, days when the only problem we had was to choose which flavor of ice cream to eat and to those days when we used to wonder why the sun used to follow us wherever we went. It was those golden days that we wanted to go by fast so that we could become grownups. We rushed those days of our amazing childhood to become big girls/ big boys only to discover the fact that growing up isn‟t that fun as we used to think it would be. We spend our child hood wishing we would grow up fast and spend the rest of our grownup life wishing we would become young again.
We have got so carried away with our lives that we don‟t realize the time flying by in front of our eyes. The daily routine of: waking up, work, coming home tired, going to sleep has become a daily habit and it has become so attached to our lives we don‟t realize the time we are losing with everyone else. Currently we are all running behind degrees, money and other materialistic things that we don‟t have the time to really live. In a way one would say that it‟s the fast moving world that does this to us, but what if we all stop, and do everything at our own pace? Sometimes it would feel as if someone else is moving faster than you are, but does it matter that he or she is? „Cause at the end of the day, in the perspective of a university student, we would all get the same degree.
Don‟t you think that because of this fast moving world we are losing the time with people? The ones who really loves us and cares for us? It won‟t be until we lose someone of our own that we realize the value of time and what “growing up” has brought to us. Is it necessary that we wait till we lose someone to realize this? Can‟t we get back to our old ways of coming home and telling our moms and dads everything that happened throughout the day, watch T.V together, rather than locking ourselves up in our rooms, working on our laptops, chatting with someone on the phone? Yes, one could say that they have so much of work and talking and spending time with their families would take away their precious time. But you know what? it‟s sometimes okay to get your head off from all the work and maybe laugh till our sides ached with people we love. Because at the end of everything, it‟s the people who we love and cherish, will be there for us. Money, degrees and other materialistic things can‟t, do anything for us. Although we have grown up, we can still have that childish attitude of taking everything easy and light. This short semester of the first year taught me a lot of things and made me see through certain aspects of life and this was one important subject I happened to think about.
Although I was one of those kids who wanted to grow up fast, I would say: “Don‟t grow up! It‟s a trap!!” growing up is inevitable. But like C.S Lewis said: “someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again”. So let‟s hold onto the tiny moments and cherish those little snuggles cause they will be the memories that will last forever.
By : Randila Withanarachchi
Editorial board – SSS 2019