When we were kids, at some point most of us said, “When I grow up I would...,” “I would like to be grown up, it is so cool...,” ”When I grow up, no one will tell me....” However, most of time, the sentence was said without any actual knowledge of what being a grownup means.
When you are a kid, you think that everything about being an adult is cool: you are taller, you are smarter, you are stronger, no one can tell you when you need to go to sleep or when to eat, no one can boss you around, and you do not have to respond to anyone.
Photo source: "Kids at Kubota Garden, 2003" by Seattle Municipal Archives
And yet, when you actually get there, you realise you have been screwed, you have been tricked, and you been jackassed.
It is very similar to that movie, “The Kid (2000),” with Bruce Willis, where a kid meets the future version of himself and says, “So, I'm forty, I'm not married, I don't fly jets, and I don't have a dog? I grow up to be a loser.”
But we will never admit that. Most of the time, we just pretend: pretend about what we think, about what we do, and we pretend about the feelings we feel. So, why do we do it? The simple answer would be that it is a part of the social game we all have to play, or else.... No one even says what would happen, no one even wants to think about it. It seems like, if we would be honest, we would summon some ancient curse that was waiting for centuries to end us all.
One would have thought that most people in middle of their lives have already figured out everything, but the reality is that there are those who openly admit that they do not know what they doing, and, on the other side, there are those who pretend that they know exactly what they are doing and why. As strange as it seems, most people you meet who look super confident about their lives, it is likely that they do not have any clue about the things they are doing.
Despite all the knowledge, tools, and science we’ve accumulated over time, we do not have a clue what we are doing and why. We are not governed by our dreams, wills, or desires, but, most of the time, we are pushed by the waves of the current. Usually, those forces will imprint upon our brains how we ought to behave, what to believe, and what to do.
Politics, the economy, and all other macro events are just a reflection---a reflection of the current we call the “system,” with everyone in it.
From time to time, someone jumps out, just to be pulled back at the very next moment, as the majority does not allow any disturbance, or at least that is what those who lead us think.
For the system, the worst thing one can imagine is to be a child again, to be yourself and be happy admitting that you do not have a clue what will happen next and that that is ok...
What about you? How do you like being a grownup so far?
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