Growing up too fast isn’t always a bad thing. You didn’t choose to but you did faster than everyone else. You turned a legit adult at 18, but honestly you’d been one much sooner than that. “You look really mature for your age” or “Wow, are you only __ years old?” Haven’t you faced these reflections all through your early years?

Look around for reasons and you’ll find way too many. An impoverished home, dwindling finances, being the oldest sibling, neglect, or even bullying; just about anything would have cut short your free and careless adolescent years, howsoever you would have wished not to grow up faster than everyone else!

You’re Quick-witted and excellent at prioritizing.

It’s never been tough for you to choose between going out and partying on a school night or staying back and prepare for your next exam. You always knew what you wanted but more importantly you knew what was needed of you. You always chose to stick to a schedule that would show your priority tasks.

Over the time opportunities got laid out before you to be managed and arranged in order of importance. You were definitely adept in that and would do all that in 0.5 sec flat. It was truly a skill and you bettered others.

You’re one heck of a planner

This is not about “planned my entire wedding on Pinterest” kinda work-out either. Perhaps you had your whole life mapped out all through or maybe at some point of time you had tried to. Arranging and listing were your religion while spontaneity gave you only stings and hives.

Yet your game plan for tomorrow is as firm today as it’s been yesterday and most likely will be a year from tomorrow as well.

From respite to resume’

Do you feel like you’ve missed out so many things in your childhood? Imagine yourself on a moonwalk or swinging on the playground during school interval and then the next moment you find yourself looking for any job that would accept an 18 year old’s CV! In a heartbeat responsibilities have come crashing down on you.

Now you miss what you’ve left behind. You long and thrive for what you didn’t take in. You want to be in the slumber party at your friend’s home, you didn’t get. You want to get drenched by those squeaky sprinklers in your front yard one last time; you missed them dearly. And you’d love if someone yells at you once again, “It’s ok, you’ll understand when you get older.”

If you get what I mean by saying this then perhaps you’ve overstepped and overshot your reach but that‘s ok if this gets you any closer to sense of comfort and well being.

Nobody understood you correctly

Your whole life till now has been mired in failing relationships-friendly or romantic likewise. You’ve been struggling with your fixes for long.

If this is you then you’ve matured quite early when most people your age haven’t. Your friends just don’t understand why you can’t go out and join them for partying every single weekend. What’s fun, electrifying and rebellious for them, you view it as unnecessary and would prefer to go your way. For you empathy comes hard and you can do no more than pity them. You have lost a lot many friends because of it.

But don’t we all lose something and gain somewhere?

No worries. You don’t hold it against anybody

In the beginning you didn’t know how to put yourself ahead and when you did, it felt brutally selfish. Later you knew that you’ll be fine because you’ve learned how to take care of yourself. You’d know how and why you should move mountains for others when they wouldn’t even walk 10 steps for you. And you’d do it. You’d do it today as well because that’s just what you know. When someone would actually dare to invest in you, it’s completely rare territory and would leave you uneasy and cautious.

You can’t help being jealous.

You wouldn’t want to admit this but you’ve always been privy to other people’s accomplishments and would easily get jealous of those who got lucky in fulfilling their youth. You’d be in awe of those who got to be careless and free and yet lived a warm and rewarding life without fearing any backlash. You’d resent those who didn’t always have to be so unfettered and grown up. You’re envious of the kids who got time out as a child because you thought their parents cared more.

You’d wish to be like your mates who got to be just that- a student; not a grown up adult.

You’d think of yourself as “getting old.”

In all seriousness, there’s nothing worse than a 25-year-old unfolding a long winded, candid spiel when in a company– that would often end up with glib excuses about how incredibly “old” they’re? Its one thing when you’re being sarcastic— it’s quite another when you actually cheat yourself into believing that you’re truly getting up there in age.

As a kid and then as a teen you’d often feel that way. It’s likely that you were surrounded by young immature people who’d remind you that your sense of restraint was on a rapid decline. 

Instead had you been surrounded by those who were happy in what they do and excited about the future, the thought of “getting old’ would have missed your lexicon.

“Too late” to pursue your dreams!

I’ve often come across people in my life who even when in their “twenty something” and “tween” would in all seriousness confide that they can ‘no longer’ pursue their dreams or that they’re ‘too old’ to make a new beginning. From vacationing in Europe to taking night classes towards their Masters, everything seemed remote to them.

Limitations apart, to simply feel like the “crazy” period of your life where you try new things is magically over the moment you hit mid-20s is absurd. When this happens no matter how hard you have tried to come out of this mindset, you couldn’t convince yourself that there is a better life to live than you had so far. In a way you’ve condemned your life like the reruns of SVU (remember Special Victims Unit- a crime drama television series!) treating yourself to occasional takeouts at best.

Sometimes we’re born with a purpose to fit into a plan and sometimes we’re left disconnected from our ‘Inner Child’ and miss out on critical opportunities to expand. And sometimes tracing the scars that life has left us with, helps draw a better stronger person out of us.

I guess, it also reminds you that at one point of time you did fight for something you believed!

Yes, you were the one who’d dress yourself for school, who made sure to finish the homework, who always remembered to pay for own things  and who would take care of own self when sick. All through you’ve been one heck of a person. One strong-willed relentless striking soul who learned everything the hard way and made it to the real world- real fast.

Do you still agonize over your past and expect perfection from yourself? Fast tracking to adulthood always has profound and lasting impacts on one’s life. But as a grown-up there is always a way to slow down and reconnect with the part of yourself that always want to simply be a child.

So thank your childhood- for being cut short. It made you ready for the World in next to no time. And take it from me when I say, “life is fun at any age- You just have to make it happen!”