Yesterday we were children

I'm not going to talk about how ancient I am now, or about how much I feel that I'm such an old hag because I know for certain that all things considered, I'm still a really young child. I'm still stupid, still severely immature, and, well, uh, still too far to even be considered ready for whatever the world is to offer.

It's funny, though, you know? It's funny how - all of a sudden - we became adults without the world, anyone even, tell us "Hey, it's time. You're an adult now. Say bye bye to immaturity and scream welcome at this new stage of your life!"

It's funny because life doesn't work like that.

It's funny because one day, you wake up; and you suddenly realize you're beginning to do things you never usually do. You drive, you wear suits, you think of things that would've never entered your mind at 12, like, "What do I prepare for dinner tonight?" or "I wonder when I should pay the bills before I get cut off." Hell, even, "Ugh, I don't want to vote."

One morning, after you glare at the alarm clock for going off after a long night studying, you'll realize you're thrust into this situation that you can't get out of. The worst part is, after you've lived your life realizing that you have a choice in everything, you learn you're in an exception, a pertinent one at that - adulthood.

That's me right now.

And if we were to be all perfectly honest to ourselves, I guess that's where we all are. This very moment.

It's scary, yeah. But it's also very, very liberating. You still know close to nothing, but now you're actually learning from the things that happened in the past. You can utter "When I was a kid" without people butting in and saying "But you're STILL a kid!" because now, even if you still are, people actually believe you have a stake in this whole adult thing already. And you never know - you'll probably never know - how it happened.

How all of a sudden, you're no longer you. 

You're still you. But now people look at you differently, take you more seriously, listen to you more readily.

All because one day, you wake up… and you're an adult. 

Yesterday our biggest problems consisted of who can drive us to the mall (or, if you're like me, how to fabricate the truth so my parents won't have to know I commuted), the number of friends on Friendster we had, the fact that we have a 3-paged paper due tomorrow, or that our Gameboy's battery is critical already and our parents aren't even halfway through their meeting, so we'll be forced to join them.

Today we drive cars, we allow caffeine to keep us alive, and we lessen thinking of the future, heighten making it happen.

Yesterday we all lived in ignorant bliss.

Today we're starting to understand.

Yesterday life was about ourselves.

Today we're starting to think about others, too.

Yesterday we were just children.

Today we still are, but we're starting to grow.