Childhood and Growing Up.

I think I have begun to understand children and my own behaviour as a child due to the fact that I study psychology as my major. When I think about a few things that I did as a child, I always wonder why I think about them the way I did and why I behave in the manner I did. It confuses me because I know for a fact that if I were to face the same situation I would react differently. But I think that symbolizes the growth I have had in the past few years. 

Focusing on the topic, my views on many things are changing as I am getting older. This is a common topic and I believe that most have seen this shift in our view towards this particular topic in the past few years: The concept of growing up. When I was a kid I wanted to grow up, I wanted to be a grown up but now when I am “Grown Up” or rather on the path of being a “Grown Up” I hate it. I don’t want to grow up. I absolutely fear it, disgust and will do anything in my power to stop it. 

I think and know children don’t often see the big picture, they honestly cannot because their cognitive abilities only lets them see a few things. I know for a fact that all of us at some point in our childhood thought that we knew everything but in reality we knew nothing. Now when I know more than a child me I feel like I know nothing. This happens because children can only see the little details and they cannot see the whole picture. 

A perfect metaphor for this I would like to use is that of walking through a tunnel. Let’s say a person’s life begins at one end of the tunnel and at the other end is a beautiful scene. Walking towards the scenic end symbolizes our growth. When we are at the other end we only see bits and pieces of the art but that is all we can see as we are quite far. We think that the scene is the most beautiful one and we want to get close to it as fast as we can. We want to be as close to the art as our elders, we try walking fast but we seem stuck with the same view for a while. Our elders tell us to enjoy the art that is in front of us but we refuse as we want to see what they see. 

Time passes and you finally start reaching a point where you slowly start seeing what your elders saw. But that is when you realise that this scene has flaws too, you begin to see that the scene is endless and you won’t be able to cover it’s scene just in this tunnel. You don’t know what to do, you are confused as everything that you once knew is completely different then what you see. That is when it hits on why your elders told you to enjoy the art in front of you. 

But as the initial shock of growing up wears off, you slowly start to actually focus on the view in front of you. You see the beauty but the flaws too. You see that the flaws don’t make the scene ugly, they enhance the beauty of the scene. Maybe growing up is not that scary after all. 

Thank You💟

-MJM.