The most interesting aspect about human beings is our ability to evolve. Scientists believe that our entire species may have slowly evolved from nothing more than microscopic single-cell organisms. Mankind was once so new to this world that the most advanced discovery for us was learning how to build a fire. Now, we have the ability to control entire cities and countries without moving an inch.
The individual unit of a species acts in a fashion that is not very different from the way it behaves as a whole. So, in the very manner that our species has evolved as a whole, we too, evolve individually from the moment we are born. We call this evolution, growth.
As young people, we constantly hear about what growing up means. We receive guidance about the right way and the right pace that we should be growing up. We are provided with an understanding of all the things that we need to grow up, and the things that can prevent us from growing up in the right way.
Yet, none of us are ready for the moment when we truly do grow up.
Growing up is not the moment that you become an adult, complete your education or even get your first job. It is the moment you realise that you have learned too many things about life and the world to allow yourself to continue being the person you were when you were a child. This does not mean that you reject the parts of your identity that have been with you since you were child. It simply means that you cannot continue to embrace naivete because it would no longer mean innocence, it would mean indifference.
So, is it true that the price we pay for freedom and independence is the loss of the individual who carried us all the way from childhood right up to the beginning of adulthood?
Virginia Woolf, an English author, once said, “Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others.”
Her words remind us that growing up does not really mean that our identity, the world or our lives change. It is just a process through which the way we view these things change.
We often hear that with freedom comes responsibilities. Similarly, with growth comes the power to see the world not just as it is, but as what it can become – as what we can choose to make it.
It is natural to feel uncomfortable leaving behind things that we treasure, so when we are facing a part of our lives where we leave behind certain illusions and ideas that we have had our entire lives, then we will most likely experience some level of discomfort and fear. However, in such a time it is important for us to remember that the reason we are leaving these things behind is because they are preventing us from being everything we can be.
Think of it as leaving behind some extra luggage so that you can run fast enough to catch a flight that you are about to miss. When you are soaring in the sky, looking down at cities and oceans, you might just realise that your destination is much more important to you than the things you have left behind.
