When I was a child, I thought adults had life figured out.Seriously, I thought being grown meant having money, making your own decisions, going wherever you wanted, buying whatever you needed, and basically living the good life.
Whenever adults told us, “You’ll understand when you grow up,” I honestly thought growing up would come with some kind of manual.
Nobody told me adulthood would come with bills.Or responsibilities.Or difficult decisions.
Or those moments when you sit quietly and ask yourself, “Is this really how my life was supposed to turn out?”
No wonder someone said adulthood na scam. Scam in the sense that those things we imagined as children, some has not happened.
As children, most of us had an idea of who we would become.
Some wanted to be doctors.Some wanted to fly planes.
Some wanted to become lawyers, nurses, engineers, teachers, musicians, or successful business owners.
We all had plans.
We had timelines.
And somehow, those plans always seemed so easy.
Finish school.
Get a good job.
Make money.
Become successful.
Enjoy life.
Simple.
Then reality happened.
And suddenly, we discovered that life doesn't always follow the script we wrote for it.Some people are working jobs they never imagined doing.
Some abandoned childhood dreams because circumstances changed.
Some are still trying to figure things out.
Some achieved the things they wanted but discovered that achievement doesn't automatically give you the happiness you imagined.
And some are still waiting for their “big break.”
That, I think, is one of the biggest surprises of adulthood.
Growing up doesn't necessarily give you the life you imagined. It gives you the responsibility of figuring out what to do with the life you actually have.
I've had to learn this myself.
There were things I thought would have happened by certain ages. There were places I thought I would be by now.
But life doesn't always respect our timelines.
Sometimes you take a U-turn.
Sometimes you start again.
Sometimes you have to let go of one dream and make room for another.
And sometimes, the thing you once considered a setback becomes part of the story you're eventually grateful for.
Looking back, I don't think my younger self would recognize the life I live today.
But maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Maybe growing up isn't about becoming the exact person you imagined as a child.
Maybe it's about meeting the person life is shaping you into.
The younger me wanted certainty.
The adult me has learned to live with uncertainty.
The younger me thought success had a specific age.
The adult me now knows that life doesn't check your birth certificate before giving you your turn.
So yes, reality hit hard.But I'm still here anyway.Still learning.Still hoping.Still building.
And perhaps that is also part of growing up.
Thanks for stopping by!