Act Your Age

Long into my adult years I used to wonder when I’d feel “grown up.” I could see people my age, acting like what I thought adults should act like – serious, worried about business and world affairs. I just never felt that ponderous, for lack of a better word.

I often hear parents telling their children to “grow up.” What does that mean exactly? Is being fun-loving, excited about the world and things in it, and full of awe childish? Then forgive me, but I hope I always remain a child. I hear adults say about other adults, “why would they act so childish” or “don’t they realize they’re too old for that?” What are they being too old for?

I enjoy life far too much to “grow up.” Responsibility is a part of being an adult, and lord knows, I’ve had my share of responsibility. I raised two reasonably responsible children of my own; I took in three orphaned teenagers and adopted one of them when I was but 24 years old and did the best I could do to see that they were put on the right path; I spent 23 years of my life being responsible for other people’s children in my daycare; I took care of my mother-in-law who was wheelchair bound, blind with cataracts, hard of hearing and had a tracheotomy tube, during the last year and a half of her life. And yet, I still don’t feel “grown up” if it means acting my age. Someone tell me what my age acts like.

I’m 58 years old (a woman never tells her age, but then I don’t feel like a woman, I’m still a girl at heart!) I shop for sensible but fun clothes, I like my hair in trendy cuts, and I do odd things now and then, like dye my hair pink and wear outrageous eye makeup. Does this mean I’m acting like a child? Gosh, I hope so!

Children are wonderful, aren’t they? They don’t worry if their hair is mussed, they dig in the dirt for treasures, and they wonder at the clouds passing by. They are full of life and energy and fascination. WHY would we want to be anything other than that! And yet we have this unfortunate tendency to want to beat it out of them. – Stand up straight, don’t dawdle, stay in line, come on! We need to get going…

I guess I was fortunate in having parents and teachers who understood the nature of a child to want to explore and discover. I haven’t lost that tendency. And hopefully I haven’t lost the desire to be unique and fun loving.

There’s a joke that makes the rounds on the Internet that goes something like inside every old person is a young person wondering what the heck happened. Someone once said to me, you’re either living or you’re waiting around to die. I’d rather be living, thank you very much.