This growing up thing… who says we have to?

I’m subtitling this post: ” The twenty-somethings revolt”

When you are a teen, picturing hitting your twenties is the greatest thing E.V.E.R! And oh, boy is the fun of planning your twenty-first just the bestest . What a milestone. What a landmark birthday in your life. One for the memory bank for sure.

But like I had and am still being told on numerous occasions, “ your twenties fly by “. It’s not ’till you’re sitting on the opposite side of the twenty-something mark when you realise “ oh crap, I’m getting older! ” Thirty is not that far away… ekkk!

But wait, I’m not worried about getting older (ok, I am a lil’), it’s more a case of sitting back and seeing how now that, in my late twenties, I’m supposed to have my shizz together and grow up!

To that I say, NO! I repeat, N.O!!!

Who says I have to now be married, or even worse, having my second child already? (See how I skipped right passed baby numero uno cos that should have happened by now… duh!)

You get too scared to tell people you actually have a boyfriend or girlfriend, because the next thing out their mouth is “ sooo, when are you getting married “, “ isn’t it time, hmmmm “. Oh go away!

And having kids is definitely something for future me to consider, but for now on both the marriage and kids chapter, it’s not happening. But getting asked all the time can get mighty infuriating. I will know when I am ready to settle down, and that is not today. Regardless of being in my late twenties, I don’t feel like it’s my time to bend to society’s whims and be placed into this stereotype. I’m leading the revolt people, join me!

It’s good to be a kid

Let me be clear though, as much as I don’t feel the need to bare offspring and make someone a good wifey just yet, it doesn’t mean that I live like the ultimate adult-child either.

Gone are the days when I would party ’till the sun came up, slept all day. Wash, rinse, repeat . The thought of doing that now makes my narcolepsy kick in immediately. Sleep is now my best friend. And don’t get me started on afternoon naps… pure bliss !

And being a kid, my biggest worry in life was if Bobby in my economics class liked me or not. And the best way to find out if Bobby liked me… sending him a letter of course, with two blocks on them, in which he would have to tick the yes or no box to answer my question. Now worries that can be pretty overwhelming sometimes include filing your Tax return on time, enough money in your account for your debit orders, making sure your car is serviced and license is renewed, and, and, and, the list goes on.

Then there is the clothes saga in life. It’s a great love story, that started out for me at an early age. The best days of school were those that we could get out of our uniforms and wear our own clothes, Civvies Days . Whoo hoo. But the thing you don’t realise when you are a kid is that somehow, these clothes (and shoes, and accessories) somehow magically pay for themselves. All you need to do is go shopping with mom, choose what you want and BAM, folded and in a shopping packet placed securely in your hand. Done! Now however, different story, shops that once were too uncool to even walk into are now the places to buy the best clothes. Name brands, shlamebrands. I can admit that I was a huge name brand junkie as a teen, but now, dang, I can’t afford that no more!

I am making a note right now to go hug both my folks immediately after publishing this to apologise for being such a brat!

Growing up is not all bad

No, I haven’t changed my mind about the marriage and the kid thing in the last 5 minutes, so calm down, but I do admit that growing up does have some cool perks too though…

Freedom is probably the biggest perk. Not because I grew up in a super strict family or anything that I say this, but the fact that you don’t have to ask your parents to go out at night or stay out a bit later if you want to, and being able to get in your car and drive wherever you want to is awesome.

Exploring is another biggie for me. It also goes hand-in-hand with the freedom aspect too. That I feel like, not to slap on the cliches here, but the world is my oyster and I can make my own decisions, go where I want to go, be who I want to be. Making my own mistakes, and me having to be accountable for my the actions taken during my exploring of this thing called life.

Growing up is daunting , growing up is flipping scary, but as much as being a kid does bring back some epic memories and has some cool aspects to it, I know this adult thing is not so bad either. I can explore it, embrace it and scream YOLO as loud as I want to, anywhere in the world.

So let me be, let me embrace life, let me explore the way I want to.. and stop asking me when I’m going to settle down and get married .

This is my version of growing up, it may not be your version but who cares, just shoosh you…

*Images: courtesy of Shutterstock