Grow

i will not grow up

without dreams or adventure…

i will simply grow.

*~*~*~*~*~*

 

My grandfather used to have this saying: I will never grow up... I will simply grow.

 

I loved that saying. As I child, I was obsessed (and in love) with Peter Pan and the idea of staying a carefree child forever. I cried the eve of my 13th birthday and even more the day before I turned 18. I was terrified with the idea of growing up and getting old; no longer being the person I knew I was... always changing, with forced responsibilities, and clipped wings.

 

In the early years of my adulthood (which I know many of you will still say I'm in. For the sake of my post, let's say 19-22), I found myself trapped in the contemporary idea of what it means to be an adult. I had a job, responsibilities, I had to go to the doctor by myself, and I was becoming more and more cynical. It was after I worked at Disney World, that I realized that (as Walt says), imagination has no age and my imagination is one of the biggest and strongest parts of me. So I decided to embrace that and run with it!

 

If I want to wear my hair in pigtails, I do. Wear crazy colored tights? I'm on it. Doodle in my notebook? Yup. Watch a Disney movie? You bet! I still try to go through life believing in magic and the best in people...

 

Life is far to short to fit into the cookie cutter mold of what the world expects of you. It's exhausting and later in life you realize it was a waste of time! I'm glad I realized I can be me and still have people enjoy me as I am without matching up to what others want... I will never grow up! I will simply grow!

 

a.r.w.