There’s a myth when you’re seven and its this: grownups have all the fun.
“That while your life is basically paralyzed by rules and regulations, grown-ups get to play around with thier new toys and wonderful gadgets. They get to sleep later than 8 PM and watch as much TV as they could. They have many fabulous friends and would often attend the sassiest shindigs. Grown-ups are always happy. They were important and all-knowing, while as kids, we were messy, sloppy and dependent. Grown-ups lived in this magical world where they got everything they want and always looked perfect while doing so”
Fast-forward to fourteen years later and I’ve come to realize that being a grown-up isn’t all that it’s played out to be. Yes, grown-ups can sleep later than eight and watch all the TV that they want but they couldn’t because they’re too busy. And truth is, grown-ups would love to sleep at eight, only if thier busy lives would stop haunting them for awhile to let them rest. And they’re always fabulous because that’s what society expects from them. That’s the status quo, that’s the standard.
In the grown-up world, there are imaginary restrictions and regulations that no one talks about, it’s kept away in idealisms, regrets over the pasts and impossible hopes for the future. Grown-ups make up thier own rules and later on get trapped by them.
There are responsibilities, big ones. Ones that you cannot overlook. And you can never run away from them because running away from them would only make them bigger, like the monster in our closet or the ones hidden under our beds.
And grown-ups don’t always get what they want. And they’re always so happy because they’re pretending that what they have so far is what they have always wanted. But, in reality, nothing in thier life made sense and the decisions that they have made seemed to have taken them away from the dreams that they’ve had when they were seven.
And just like seven year olds, grown-ups had playmates too, but none of them were real. They were like Barbie Dolls, dressed to impress but were only around if they needed you, never when you needed them.
And unlike Barbie, you never get a Ken because he’s either too old, too young, still in school, dropped out of school or he simply broke you heart and never came back to pick up the pieces.
So what do we do?
Stay confined in the four corners of our imaginary walls and never grow up?
Unfortunately, that is not an option and that being an option is a scary thought because at the same time that you go through all of these realistic things, you also go through the richest things you could ever go through in life.
Yes, you experience pain, but you also experience love at its truest form. You meet the most insincere friends, but you’d be surprised at the people who’d be there for you when you need them the most. And you’d be surprised at how wonderful they turn out to be and how wonderful they have made your life to be.
Ken is never perfect, but he’s always perfect for the moment and that smile that he sends your way everytime you think of him is not a bad thing at all.
And we get up every morning wanting to fight, because we all still have that seven year old within us.
Because that seven year old still believes that along the yellow brick road of life, some of our grandest dreams still come true.
