Vortex

There are days, that I wake up and feel like the last twenty years of my life have gone by in an absolute blur. I want to play, and watch cartoons, and wonder why my mom's not in the kitchen making pancakes...and then it dawns on me.

I'm a grown up.

My siblings are all engaged, I have an amazing (turning 2 tomorrow!) goddaughter, a beautiful niece, and, I'm sure, another gorgeous niece on the way. I have a house, a car, and two jobs. The only question I have is, WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!

I feel like far too often, we get wrapped up in our goals and dreams that we forget the journey of everything. Ever since I was a very small child all I ever wanted was to grow up, and now, here we are...and I just want to sit in bed reading and watching the Little Mermaid on repeat, and that's what brings me to this conclusion: yes, I am a mature, determined, responsible adult, but that doesn't ever mean that I have to give up the things that have helped to mold and create who I am today. Yes, I still lose my mind over Harry Potter, but thankfully I'm part of a huge generation that grew up with Harry, and those books got me through some of the most trying times of my life.

You don't have to lose your childlike wonder to be an adult, and quite personally I think someday, like ten years away someday, it'll be the key to my success as a mother. So, I guess what I'm trying to get at here is, everyone needs to take a giant breath, and relax. Don't be afraid to laugh. Or create something. And by all means, get messy! Play in the rain. Dance in your car. Call your brother and reminisce about the time you made him wake mom up at five in the morning because you missed your bus. Come back to your roots. Drive by the place you remember seeing your first crush. Stop pretending that you're going to make it out of this world alive. You're not, I'm not. Be spontaneous. Live in the moment. Go somewhere new. Seriously, stop reading this and have a pillow fight with your love.

I know I need this reminder from time to time. So get out there, and stop taking yourself so seriously.

Jabberwocky

"Imagination has no age, and dreams are forever."-Disney

When I was a young child, I was more somber and serious than the majority of my classmates. I took my education very seriously and helping around the house was a top priority of mine. I read nonstop and had only a couple close friends.

Now, looking back on that, I'm so terribly thankful I was that kid. As an adult, I have zero problems with dedicating my time off work to cleaning the house, doing favors for people, cooking, babysitting, etc. (you get the point, it's all that boring stuff we all have to do, as I am well aware.)

However, the unseen added benefit to being an overly mature young child with a few too many responsibilities, ended up being the ability to live outside societies normal conventions. I take nothing at face value and I certainly don't take advice on...well anything really. And it's because, my mind is still constantly growing, expanding, challenging itself and continuing its journey on sorting out the world and how it works. I'm glad that I am in no way stuck or tied down to anything. Whether those ties be physical or mental, I see everyone growing old with these notions of, "well this is how I was raised and dag-nab-it it's how I'm gonna be raising my kids too," cop out bullshit. Why wouldn't you want to do better? Evolve? Why can't you take an unbiased step back and say, you know, my parents weren't perfect, but no one is. Accept that. Move on. Everyone makes mistakes in life and sometimes children are the ones that pay for that, but I say, why don't we use those lessons to become better people? Why do emotions get in the way of your acceptance of the past and your carrying on with a better future? Why is there an entire generation of young women taking their clothes off, partying excessively, and sleeping with any number of undeserving men due to daddy issues? Why are there young men who have zero coping mechanisms due to their parents sour divorce? People of the world, take responsibility for your actions, and yours alone. What someone else has done to you is not your fault, but if you continue to not live your life to its fullest potential because you're using that as a crutch...then yeah, you're to blame as well.

Everyone needs a long hard look in the mirror, and a swift kick in the behind to get moving. Get to know yourself, and be okay with who you are! Strive to be a better person today. Whether that be shoveling a neighbour's sidewalk, feeding some birds, or giving someone the benefit of the doubt when they're being an absolute ass to you. If we don't try and grow as a race, we're certainly going to die as cowards.