English 125
Instructor: Ms. Young Manning
Growing Up
When I was around the ages of ten – thirteen years old, I had always imagined that adult life was full of excitement and fun. I believe I took some of my childhood for granted. Since I was young, I thought that being an adult was very fun and it was all I wanted to be. Children’s rules did not apply to adults, and they could do whatever they desired. Now that I am nineteen years old, I realize that everything I believed when I was younger is not all about fun. Adults have to follow certain rules and have huge responsibilities.
When I was younger, one of my older cousins named Rosie would come to my house and visit. I would be so amazed by everything she did; to me she was my role model. At that time, Rosie was twenty years old, attended Fresno State, and had a part time job at Walmart. Since she was older than I was, she would wear makeup and go to parties. She seemed like she had her life all figured out, and I couldn’t wait to be like her when I grew up. I also wanted to be as old as her at that time, twenty years old.
Most of the time, I would go over to play with her younger sister Lizbeth, who was my age. I would see my cousin Rosie getting ready for parties, and I wanted to wear makeup just like her. My parents did not let me wear makeup because they have this strict rule of not wearing make up till the age fifteen. Rosie never looked stressed or tired in front of me. Sometimes when she would be on her way out to parties, I would want to go with her, but I couldn’t since I was underage at that time, and the parties she went to were only for college students like her. This made me want to go even more. The fact that I couldn’t go just made me sad and mad. This is one of the reasons I wanted to grow up fast, so I could do all the things she did.
As soon as my cousin Rosie would go out to a party, work, or anywhere else, my cousin Lizbeth and I would sneak in her room and play with her stuff. We would play with her perfumes, lotions, and makeup, and wear some of her clothes even if they did not fit us. I loved playing with her stuff, but at the end we would have to organize everything back in its place. This would be the most boring part of the day, and my cousin and I would hate it, but this didn’t stop us from playing with her stuff.
Unfortunately, one day when she left to go to the movie theater, she came back home at an earlier time than usual. At this time, we were already in her room wearing her scarfs. This made her get really mad at us, which caused her to yell at us for the first time. She made us cry; we had never seen her that angry. Two days later she got over it, but the experience led her to buy a lock for her room. This prevented us from going in her room without her permission when she was gone. My cousin Lizbeth and I would want to go in her room even more because it had a lock and somewhat tempted us to go in, but we couldn’t anymore.
A few days later, we got over this, but I ended up visiting my cousin’s house less. The times I did go over, my cousin and I interacted more with her neighbors our age. At times we missed playing in my cousin’s room with her stuff and pretending to be young adults. However, the outcome was good in a way. We began playing dodge ball, tag, freeze-tag, jump rope, and many other games kids at our age played. This made us make more friends at that time with kids that did not care as much about being an adult.
As the years went by, I patiently waited to become an adult, and as I got older, I started forgetting how much I wanted to be one. The time went flying somehow, and soon, I was nearly as old as the age I wanted to be as a child, twenty. Now that I am nineteen years old, I realize life is not as easy as it seemed. I had it very easy when I was younger, but I took that for granted because I made myself believe being older would be the answer to everything.
I am now currently a full-time freshman at Madera Community College with a full-time job at a local food market. At times it gets tough but at the end of the day, I manage to make it through. Going to college is not all about partying; one needs to put school work as the first priority above anything else. Education is the only thing that will make one successful in life and get the career that one will enjoy in the future.
Once people get older, they begin to get more and more responsibilities. College is not the same as going to an elementary school, middle school, or even high school. An individual has to be responsible when going to college and try one’s best in classes. No one ever told me that once one gets older, working is part of being a grown up. At an early age I just saw the things that I wanted to see. I also only asked about the places that interested me, leaving out the rest. Ironically at times, all I want to be now is young again.