Bryan W. Alaspa 1Growing up sucks
March 29th 2010 13:21
It’s amazing the things we tell children sometimes. Most of us, as grown-ups, forget how the mind of a child works. When you are a child, anything is possible. That’s the wonder of being a child. When a parent looks at you earnestly and says, “when you grow up, you can be ANYTHING you want to be” a kid takes that literally. I immediately said I wanted to grow up to be a shark.
Well, they said ANYTHING and I took that literally. I was very into sharks back then. I still find them fascinating. Well, if I can be anything when I grow up, then I wanted to be a big fish with lots of teeth that swam in the ocean eating other fish and people. Who wouldn’t want to be that? Had I been into dinosaurs I would probably have wanted to grow up to be a T-Rex.
That’s the problem with growing up. Growing up, when you look at it, sucks. When I look back on the things that I worried about when I was in grade school, high school, or even college, it is with a fond nostalgia. Oh, if ONLY the only thing occupying my mind was whether or not I could find a date to the prom these days. No, growing up involves the systematic destruction of your imagination, sense of wonder, and ability to dream the fantastic.
I run into far too many grown ups who say they cannot watch movies or read stories that involve aliens or fantasy. How sad is that? You mean they ONLY want to watch movies that present representation of real life? Isn’t real life sad enough that escape into a galaxy far, far away or perhaps a journey to some kind of Middle Earth isn’t more entertaining? To me, that is so sad. That means their imagination and sense of wonder is gone. They have killed it off like a weed growing up in the crack of a sidewalk.
To this day the greatest job I ever had was the very first one I ever had. I was lucky and did not have to work in a fast food joint when I was in high school. I worked for the high school itself. I worked for the Registrar who was the guy who managed the schedules of all of the students as well as entered all of the grades and helped distribute report cards. Actually, I did a lot of that with him. I was the data entry guy who entered the grades and I worked with the Registrar to put together ever student’s schedule every summer.
It was a great job. For being so young, our boss (two of us worked the job during the summer) had tremendous trust in us. He trusted us to get the tasks done that he had set and then did not hover over our shoulders to see that the jobs got done. This meant that if we got our jobs done quickly and wandered off to shoot basketballs in the gym, that was OK. What job allows that when you finally reach the working world?
Growing up just means you have to worry more about bills. You have to worry about your family. You have to worry about your career. You have to worry about everything because, suddenly, everything affects you. Suddenly you have to care about politics and things like that. Your time for dreaming, fun and wonder diminishes with each passing year. Then your body starts to go and you have just one more thing to worry about.
I miss the days of not worrying. I miss the days of wishing I could grow up to be a shark. I miss the days when I could play on the front lawn of my home, by myself, without even any toys, and entertain myself for hours with things I made up entirely I my head. You do that when you grow up, they lock you away and do electro-shock.
Well, they said ANYTHING and I took that literally. I was very into sharks back then. I still find them fascinating. Well, if I can be anything when I grow up, then I wanted to be a big fish with lots of teeth that swam in the ocean eating other fish and people. Who wouldn’t want to be that? Had I been into dinosaurs I would probably have wanted to grow up to be a T-Rex.
That’s the problem with growing up. Growing up, when you look at it, sucks. When I look back on the things that I worried about when I was in grade school, high school, or even college, it is with a fond nostalgia. Oh, if ONLY the only thing occupying my mind was whether or not I could find a date to the prom these days. No, growing up involves the systematic destruction of your imagination, sense of wonder, and ability to dream the fantastic.
I run into far too many grown ups who say they cannot watch movies or read stories that involve aliens or fantasy. How sad is that? You mean they ONLY want to watch movies that present representation of real life? Isn’t real life sad enough that escape into a galaxy far, far away or perhaps a journey to some kind of Middle Earth isn’t more entertaining? To me, that is so sad. That means their imagination and sense of wonder is gone. They have killed it off like a weed growing up in the crack of a sidewalk.
To this day the greatest job I ever had was the very first one I ever had. I was lucky and did not have to work in a fast food joint when I was in high school. I worked for the high school itself. I worked for the Registrar who was the guy who managed the schedules of all of the students as well as entered all of the grades and helped distribute report cards. Actually, I did a lot of that with him. I was the data entry guy who entered the grades and I worked with the Registrar to put together ever student’s schedule every summer.
It was a great job. For being so young, our boss (two of us worked the job during the summer) had tremendous trust in us. He trusted us to get the tasks done that he had set and then did not hover over our shoulders to see that the jobs got done. This meant that if we got our jobs done quickly and wandered off to shoot basketballs in the gym, that was OK. What job allows that when you finally reach the working world?
Growing up just means you have to worry more about bills. You have to worry about your family. You have to worry about your career. You have to worry about everything because, suddenly, everything affects you. Suddenly you have to care about politics and things like that. Your time for dreaming, fun and wonder diminishes with each passing year. Then your body starts to go and you have just one more thing to worry about.
I miss the days of not worrying. I miss the days of wishing I could grow up to be a shark. I miss the days when I could play on the front lawn of my home, by myself, without even any toys, and entertain myself for hours with things I made up entirely I my head. You do that when you grow up, they lock you away and do electro-shock.
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