Olumurewa Damilola

While growing up, when we were still little kids, we had this fantasy about growing up, which entails; having our own money, buying whatever we want, traveling the world, making a lot of friends, just living without no stress. The fantasies are endless. So we thought until we grew up and realized that we were just a little bit delusional, that life isn’t all that rosy and fair because life has a way of hitting you so hard that you would wish you were still a child.

Firstly, you should know that the general term for growing up is adolescence. Basically, adolescence is a period of transitioning from childhood to adulthood also, note that adolescence starts from age 10 -21. Just like the definition of adolescence, you start “transitioning” from being very short to being tall. You start noticing the changes in your body, your thinking pattern and your emotional consciousness then, you start becoming self conscious of who you are and what you are. Honestly, this is the first step of the endless cycle of growing up. Then you have the neverending questions and confusion about what you want to become in life, what university you want to attend, what kind of friends you want to have. You will never have thought that these questions could ever cross your mind as a child since you thought life was supposed to be a fairytale.

But life isn’t supposed to be hard, you thought, until you enter the university and you start studying the course of your choice and you have to keep up with lectures, meet up with assignment and project deadlines, and join extracurricular activities. Then you remember when you were still young and what you ever did in school was to recite the alphabetical letters with a sweet in your mouth. It doesn’t end here, you also find out that you have to hustle and make money because you found out that the labour market out there isn’t so friendly, you just have to “double your hustle”. Apart from school work, you think you have to learn a skill, get an online job, or even start a business, so as to be on the same level financially with your peers. You just have to up your game.

Also, there is also your social and emotional wellbeing to look after. You realize that you have to make friends, socialize and be around people because you know that no man is an island, we need each other and one cannot underestimate the power of building the right connections. Regarding emotional wellbeing, you have to learn the act of self care, you have to learn how to handle rejections, disappointments, friend’s betrayal, peer pressure and a lot more. You have to learn how to be content with what you have because you will find out that some people will have more than the others since we can’t all be equals.

Moreover, while growing up, you will learn a lot of life lessons and you will learn about some standing social issues which plague our society. You will come to accept that life is not “balanced”, that some have it easier than you could ever dream of. You will learn that life is sometimes about taking risks, that it’s okay to take a little break, that it’s okay to let go of somethings or some habits, that it’s okay to make mistakes and it’s okay to fall and rise again. You will come to understand that growing up comes with some responsibilities, that is about identifying who you are and coming to terms with who you are. It’s about learning to be more understanding of people, it’s about becoming more responsible, it’s all about taking charge of your life.

With all these in mind, becoming an adult could be daunting and frightening but we should not be overwhelmed by these emotions. We have to embrace these changes, we have to accept that they are all part of living. Will there be days when you would wish that some magical power could take you back to being a child? Yes, there will be but you have to accept that there is no going back to being a child, unless you have a magical power of your own. You just have to learn how to handle adulthood and you will later realize that you will be fine!