Kids Grow Too!!!

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Not too long ago, I was walking down the street to my home, coming back from a trip I had taken. And as I walked, a young lady, no more than 17 years greeted me. I recognized her immediately, because I knew who she was. It had been a while since I saw her because I’ve not always been around, but I recognized her the minute I saw her, all the same. But for some reason, even though she’s much older than she was years ago, the last time I saw her, I still couldn’t look past the image of her I had in my head.

That’s when she was still a little girl, running around playing with her friends and disturbing everyone in the church. She was one of the stubborn who couldn’t be nailed to a seat. The type of child that an adult has to sit close to during mass, if not, she would disappear to go and play with her friends, and no one would see her again until mass was over. When she was little, she was a menace.

And while I was happy to see her, I couldn’t get the image of that little girl out of my head to replace the teenager that I was seeing right before me. And as I clocked it, I realized that it wasn’t just with her. Whenever I see people whom I knew closely when they were kids, it’s always a bit difficult for me to separate the kid from the adult they are in the present day. Hearing the thick voices of the guys always throws me off, and when they call me Uncle or Brother Bruno, I’m always like, “Who are you calling Uncle, you this old man!”

But then, I begin to wonder, is that how people also see me? Whenever I go home, to the house where I grew up, I find people who knew me back then who still live in the area. Every time they see me, are they reminded of the little boy that I was? Do they really see the man, or can they not just get the image of the little boy out of their minds and accept that these beards and deep voice are signs of maturity and growth, not for show?

Then you realize why some parents find it hard to let their kids go. You’d have grown ass kids in the house, and you’d still feel like they can’t make good decisions for themselves or take care of themselves. This is because they can’t look past the children they used to be and accept the fact that they’re now adults and responsible for their own lives. Sadly, women suffer more in this regard.

I’ve always heard it being said that no matter how old you get, your parents will always see you as their little boy or little girl. I guess doing so is a coping mechanism, because once they admit to themselves that you’re actually an adult, they’re also admitting it’s time to set you free and let you fly. Not every parent is ready for that.

So, by my own reflection, I learned a very big lesson. Everyone grows. Kids become adults, and the adults shouldn’t have to be forced to live in the shadow of the children they once were just because certain people refuse to accept the glaring truth. It’s the same mentality that advises that when you succeed, change your location to somewhere no one knows you, because the people who knew your past will constantly see you finish and never accept who you are now, choosing to dwell on who you used to be.

So yeah, I guess I’ll do better. I advise everyone else to do the same.

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_{Thank you for this. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{N.B: All images used in this post are mine. The thumbnail was designed using Canva.}

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