Sure you can add another year on to your age count, you accomplish mile markings like: "Pre-teen," "Teenager," "Can drive a car," "Buy a lottery ticket," "Can vote," "Beat teenage pregnancy," "First legal drink," "Over the hill," "Mid-life crisis," "Menopause." Decades mark your age, your body begins to show it. But what is growing up? Is it your age, or is it your mental state.
I'm sure we can all name several people in our immediate & relational lives that we deem as 'immature' for their given age. They still act like "boys" or "middle school girls,"
& what we do is roll our eyes & avoid them at all costs in order to save our I.Q. points. I think that these maturity absences create a gap between people. In relationships specifically, there has to be a mutual mature mindset which the relationship is centered around.
Just like in college, you wouldn't throw a freshman into an upper level core course class. There are prerequisites that must be taken in order to fully fulfill the requirements of the course. Just like in life, there are requirements to growing up, & that all starts with your mind. Sure, physical maturity plays a huge role in growing up, but let's not demean the mental aspect.
A few months ago, I stumbled across a posting from right when I turned 16. It's funny to me, at the time I wrote it, I'm sure I thought I had everything right, felt pretty confident in myself, because you know, everyone at age 16 is so mentally mature... Ha but let's be real, that hopefully was not my peak.
Here's that posting, just for a little enjoyment for you all, & a throw back to little ole sophomore in high school Bailey, also, please enjoy the awkward cake photos:
Some say I've grown up, to me I'm still that little farm-girl who is three years old licking snow off the ground. I don't like to think that I'm growing up and getting older, that leads me closer and closer to being on my own, sure I'm so ready for that, but not yet, not right now anyways.I want to be the 16 year old who: ...thinks of myself as strong on the inside.
...is always there for people when they just need someone to talk to or just a friendly hello
...is a caring friend and fun to be with
...believes in herself
...doesn't care what other people think of her, but of what she thinks she can be
...does her personal best at everything she tries
...focuses in class and doesn't sleep
...makes her parents and family proud with the choices she makes
...is a friend and loves everyone
...doesn't judge other people by their outside appearance
...shows God's love in her actions
...is happy and smiles for no reason
Okay, not bad, kind of sappy, kind of dorky, but it was goals that were driving me. I set these mental goals for myself, that I then have gone & broken every single one of them since then, but that's besides the point. I wanted to be a good person. A person who loves & cares. It does break my heart to know that I do fail though. Growing up, & maturity takes steps forwards, & steps backwards.
I could set goal after goal again in my life right now as I prepare to finish college this May. To enter the "mature world of adults" BLEH. I can sit in the kitchen of my apartment, up way too early for my 8 am class, fret about the next step in life, praying to find peace, looking for patience in God's timing, just searching for the right timing & answers. Thinking, "So this is what it feels like to be an adult" & then preparing for the day. But then at the end of this day, turns into a new day that makes me just one day older, one more day of experience, one more day of joy & love. & I'm content, and pleased at where I'm going to be.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." -Proverbs 17:22
Peace & love.
B.
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