It's a strange thing, growing up.
One day you're sixteen, living with your parents, and working weekends at McDonald's. Not because you have to, but for that little bit of extra spending money that you so desperately want. You're going to school Monday to Friday, 8:30-3, and hanging out with friends any chance you get. No one has their license yet, so there's a whole lot of busing and walking going on. Emotions are running wild, and you feel like the world is against you.
Then before you know it you're almost twenty. You're renting a basement suite with your best friend in a city you never imagined coming back to, and you own your own car, and you're working 58 hours a week to make ends meet, and somehow you're completely okay with that. There's nights out that get loud and wild, where you'll dance without worrying about what other people think and surprise yourself by pulling a guy into the circle. There's Friends marathons on the air mattress in the living room, most often with wine, sometimes with pizza, sometimes with snacks from McTavish. There's a lot of living and learning, a lot of mistakes, a lot of doing things you don't want to do. You don't have much, but you have enough.
I look at the people I surround myself with and I realize we're no longer kids. Hell, most of us aren't even teenagers anymore. We're young adults with jobs and responsibilities, with rent to pay, groceries to buy, student loans to worry about, and this idea that no matter what happens, we're gonna be okay.
And we are. We're always okay.
It's also fun growing up. Choosing favourite grocery stores and gas stations and meals to make. Creating our own traditions and cleaning routines, finding new hobbies and making new friends. There's something special about doing it all for the first time, about creating our own little lives for ourselves.
It's also fun growing up. Choosing favourite grocery stores and gas stations and meals to make. Creating our own traditions and cleaning routines, finding new hobbies and making new friends. There's something special about doing it all for the first time, about creating our own little lives for ourselves.
Life's moving a mile a minute and I can hardly even remember what month it is anymore, let alone day of the week. But I'm more content than I have been in ages, and I'm looking forward to see where the rest of this year takes me.
