Simply Shreya: time is relative

Wingspans+Shreya+Jagan+shares+her+personal+take+on+issues+and+experiences+in+her+weekly+column+Simply+Shreya.

Morgan Kong

Wingspan’s Shreya Jagan shares her personal take on issues and experiences in her weekly column Simply Shreya.

Shreya Jagan, Staff Reporter

All around me, fellow students, friends and teenagers are getting their permits, using their credit cards, getting jobs. Me on the other hand, I still get excited about the pretty flowers on the side of the road. Which lead me to think, why is everybody in such a rush to grow up?

Some people crave that responsibility. Others crave the rush, the experience. I can relate to it all. I mean, I want to experience it too, but I’m afraid of the aftermath of growing up too fast. But everybody else seems so ready for what’s next.

They’re all ready to encounter all of those milestones like their first car, driver’s license or having a job even if they don’t need it. And while I want to go through all of those things, I desperately want to linger around my childhood for just a little longer. 

To be able to not worry about things except the vegetables on my plate. 

Or to be able to be happy because I made a new friend at school. 

But for someone like me, who is so in touch with their feelings and dreams and their imagination, reality keeps me tethered. If I lived in a utopia, I wouldn’t have the ability to enjoy the little things in life because everything would be so blurred. 

Over the years, I’ve realized there is no happiness without sorrows or hardships. In fact, as I see it, the definition of happiness loses its meaning if happiness is the only thing you’re presented with. Life goes up and down. 

Even still, every so often, I get these little epiphanies that let me know how fast time goes by. It’s definitely my biggest fear: time. As a person, I’ve always been obsessed about making the most out of everything, finding the silver lining, enjoying life for all that it’s worth. 

So, am I scared of growing up?

Yes. But that’s ok. That fear is what lets me be me. Childishness included.