When I Grow Up

In elementary school I did not want to grow up at all. As a matter of fact, my friends and I would pretend that we had a time machine that could reverse our ages. I look back on this embarrassing memory and find myself to be a very creative little kid. Every afternoon during recess we would race to the flag pole located in the middle of the school playground. The four of us would hang on the pole with one hand and run around it pretending to spin through imaginary time portals. It only made sense to us that our ages would change forwards or backwards depending on the direction that we went around the pole. When we finished spinning we would act a different age and then spin back through time just before the bell rang. It’s not that I dreaded being older; I just did not want to be forced into adulthood. Although we often ran backwards and acted like babies, I enjoyed it most when we ran forwards and acted like we were teenagers. I thought that being a teenager was the best thing that I could be when I grew up. The ideas of being able to drive, being in high school, and having a job sounded like fun.
Now that I drive, am in high school, and have a job I think my childhood mindset was a little off. Independence if something that I enjoy; however, schoolwork and work are not necessarily fun. Instead I find school as a big, never-ending “to do” list. While work is more like indentured servitude that will pay of my college bills. A little older now I realize that I do not mind growing up into an adult with responsibility. At times I look forward to the opportunities that come with age such as marriage, kids, and retirement. I wonder if my friends feel the same way I do, or if they still race back to the flag pole trying to outsmart the fate of time.