October 1, 2009

• I’m A Big Kid Now.

  In light of one of the most grown-up moments I am having—fully realizing I’m on my way to mommyhood—I wanted to share this with you.

  As a little girl, I admired the grown-ups in my life. They always seemed to have the answers to everything. I didn’t know how or why, they just DID.

   

  My daddy and me.
  

  It was the little things, you know? How they talked to one another or drove from place to place; scrunched their face as they paid bills or made decisions … I just watched them all in awe. One day, I thought, I want to do that.

  

  My inspiration, my momma.

  I always had it in my head that I’d be a grown-up at 18. That’s just when it would happen.

  

  Me at 18. Crazy, right?
  

  Coincidentally, that’s the same time that society deems a person an “adult”. And I’m sure you’d agree: there is a huge difference between being an adult and being a grown-up.

  Being an adult is something that is primarily tied to age. At 18, I could vote or buy a pack of cigarettes (if I smoked, lol). I could transition out of the teenage/high school-mentality and be surrounded with more adult situations.

  In fact, I found myself IN more adult situations, but I was far from being a grown-up about it all. When I didn’t have the answers, I would wing it, hoping I came across as “grown-up-ish” … something I didn’t always succeed at.

  I think that wisdom is what makes you more of a grown-up. Even at 27, I know I haven’t achieved true “grown-up” status. I don’t know that anyone ever does.

  

  Cooking for my husband. I’m all grown-up, right?

  Now that I’m about to be a mommy, I’m realizing, looking back, the grown-ups I admired didn’t always have the answers, either. They didn’t always know what to do … in a pinch, they would wing it, too. They had the same issues and problems that I run across every day, but they knew how to conceal it.

  We’re all always learning and growing, changing and evolving into the roles life throws at us. We’re only who and what we are in that moment—not always living up to the expectations we (or others) have set for our lives.

  And you know, I think I’ve discovered the secret of it all: maybe being a grown-up is simply admitting that you’re not one.

  After all, it’s an aspirational goal, not an inevitable one.

  Thank you to all the grown-ups in my life … my parents, my family, mentors and co-workers.
  You made me realize it’s okay to be a “work in progress!”
  
  

  My family-in-law. A-MA-ZING people.
  

  
  What grown-ups do YOU admire? Why?

  • 9:37 am
  • 12 Comments