Three Perks Of Growing Up

By Lev Novak

You’re older today than you were yesterday.

Growing up can feel a little bit stressful. After 21, they start to feel like they’re taking you further and further away from the best times in your life. Kindergarden! College! The most recent hamburger you ate! All washed over by the inexorable tide of time.

But there’s some good news.

The future is bright. The past was good in definite ways, and the future is good in less sure ones.

1. You Can Choose

Being a kid was great. You had no responsibilities and everything was cartoons and cereals. It was great.

Unless, of course, you wanted a fancy cookie.

If you were a kid at the grocery store you could not get a fancy cookie. They cost more! You have cookies at home! Why do you need that cookie, that cereal, that hat. And most times your parents were right. They were the adults, after all. But every now and then, you truly knew better. You wanted something. And you just couldn’t have it.

Being younger involves a degree of powerlessness. You are at the whims of fate to a certain degree. You can’t really choose what you want to do on a regular basis. Scale it down- as a baby, you had no responsibilities. You could poop in your pants and nobody would even have been upset. But because you had no responsibilities, you had no power. Your parents could have dressed you as a baby bumblebee every day for a year and a half. They could’ve banned you from eating carrots. Just a straight up prevention. Why? Who cares! You have no power.

Growing up can be annoying. You have more stress and anxiety than ever, but you also have more power than ever.

Gamble all your money? Sure. Fly to Russia? I guess. Drop out of college to pursue a career in competitive snorkeling? A bad idea, but yours. Your choice.

Growing up can be lame, but you have newfound power to make up for it. Use it well and wisely.

2. Nuanced Pleasures

The nuanced pleasure of getting to sleep early after a hard day of work is something that, for example, you wouldn’t really be able to savor when you were nine.

Same with a good glass of wine, or a really good veggie burger, or a movie that made you cry a little but was super good.

Growing up means reaching higher to new challenges. If you’re constantly pushing yourself, growing up is an adventure in finding new things and improvements, even in your own taste.

3. Improvement

Being smarter is one of those things that only time can give you.

Every break-up, every job interview you botch, every struggle and pain of growing up makes you better, smarter and stronger than you were before.

Growing up can be difficult and at times painful, but it’s the only way to improve and become a better you. And while the process can be painful, it’s equally important to prize the results.

At the very least, think about what a twerp you were four years ago.

See what I mean?

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