Opinion | Adulthood no longer scares me
I have always loved Peter Pan. I love the original play, the 1953 animated film and I even love the 1991 Steven Spielberg adaptation “Hook” that holds an earth-shattering 26 percent critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s a fine story, with a good plot. But more so, I loved Peter Pan because of the simple concept that this swashbuckling lime-green tights-wearing rascal didn’t get old. He was a kid forever.
As a kid who was very much enjoying his phase of Legos and action figures, that sounded like the best possible outcome for me. I’d peer over my dad’s shoulder as he sat at his desk to watch him type numbers in a spreadsheet, and I decided that I didn’t want to grow up. Not for me. No thank you. Give me Skittles and let me watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars in peace.
But the unrelenting onward march of time stops for nobody. Here I am, 10 years later, with a deeper voice and the right to vote, and I’m still not a huge fan of being an adult.
We’re conditioned to spend the majority of our time with others who are a similar age. Whether it be attending school or work, we don’t always interact with people who are much older or younger. So when I went to Hart Park on Feb. 11 to write a story about an Orange County senior volleyball league, I had no idea what to expect.
What I stumbled upon was simply a tight-knit group of friends brought together by the unifying thread of sports. Some of them were 30 years older than I was; some of them were 50 or 60 years older. They cracked jokes about one another exactly like my friends and I would, dove on the sand like I would and welcomed me with open arms even though I was a complete stranger.
As I sat on a nearby curb and jotted down notes of what I was watching, I thought back on how scared I was of adulthood; how I was scared of the responsibilities, scared I’d lose the things I loved about being a kid. Yet, from watching them, I realized that the youthful spirit I held so dear could remain well into adulthood as long as it was properly supported. The real world might have a lot of obstacles and hardships, but we live for the glimmers of freedom, for the weekday nights running around in public parks, for the friends we acquire along the way that keep our minds and hearts young.
I’m 19 years old – lodged right in between the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood. As I continue to move through college and have experiences like these that have introduced me to the working world and beyond, I know I don’t want to be Peter Pan anymore. I’m fine with growing up. Because I know, deep down, a part of that younger me will always remain. When life gets tough, it’ll only make the carefree moments sweeter.