2001

The problem with growing up has little to do with becoming a mature adult. The real problem has to do with leaving your "childish" dreams behind you. You know, the ones where you are 15 again - you're falling in love with the guy who works at your favorite store and he's actually falling in love with you too. The 15 year-old who has someone to walk her to class, waits for her after dance team practice, and writes notes about nothing at all....but folds them in a way that you pray you'll be able to replicate. The problem with growing up, and becoming the person you say you've "always wanted to be" is the fact that sometimes when you get there, you lose all the other stuff. The funny guitar riffs you tried so hard to learn, the roof tops you sat on, the sky you gazed upon - it's just not the same. Birthday presents...wait you're 17 now?  You try to listen to  the songs the wind sang, and they don't sound anything like the way you remembered. July is still the saddest month. 


You find a box full of love - letters, mixtapes, and ticket stubs - and push it further under your bed. It was a different life - before you grew up.... 


It's a different world now. A world with text messages, iPhones and Facebook - and although you try to join that world with this world you, you just can't. You remember a city with a beach, convertible cars, and parks with rain...and all you can do is cry, fold them up, and hope that when the time comes you won't have to throw the entire box in a recycle bin. You just want those years, and you want them forever. 


Try as you may, you change and you grow, then eventually you grow up. Some change their name and others just change locations - that's the problem with growing up. 

~ ACG