Ever have one of those moments when you realize you’ve matured?
Mom mentioned it in one of her posts recently. It’s a little harder for me to see myself growing up, but I notice the little things.
I’ll be honest. I’ve struggled a lot lately with growing up. I was one of those guys who couldn’t wait to get there, but now that I’m here… I’d like to proudly tender my resignation from being an adult. This stuff is just too dang hard, you know? I have to fill out paperwork, pretend I like people even when I don’t, and find some way to make money.
If you’re looking for me, I’ll be under the table with some crayons and paper.
Who am I kidding? I never liked crayons.
But I’ve found that I was wrong about a lot of things. Many of the things I thought were part of being an adult are really useless. Many of the things that I thought were childish are in fact very adult.
Take dancing.
I, to quote the poet, am a warrior and an assassin. I do not dance. Dancing is dumb and useless, and it makes me feel silly. There have been many times that Mary Hannah has tried to get me to dance with her, but no go. Consider an exchange:
Mary Hannah: “Are you feeling this?”
Me: “May the Lord smite me if I ever feel this.”
Actual exchange by the way. I do not dance.
Or, I didn’t. Because you see, Birdie loves dancing. I’ve seen her dance while emptying a dishwasher. Seriously— that girl loves to dance.
I’m only home so often these days, and by golly I’m going to spend time with family while I’m here. So yes, I dance with Birdie. I even danced with her at her co-op today until she hissed to me, “People are looking!”
“Let them look,” I said. “Who cares what they think?”
Not caring what other people think is a big step forward for me. I don’t want to say it’s a big part of being an adult, but in some ways it’s a big part of being a Christian, isn’t it? Christians hold their beliefs regardless of public opinion. It’s who we are.
So maybe I’ve matured in two ways. Maybe I’ve grown as a person and as a Christian. That’s not bad at all.