A Sabbatical for Aging

Oh, the absolute horrids of growing old.

I can’t believe that when I was younger, I thought becoming an adult would be all sunshine and rainbows. I mean, sure, you get to buy your own stuff, no set bedtime, no school, but as I grow older, I start to realise that the negatives really outweigh the positives. Sure, you can buy your own stuff, but you have to use the money that you get from your 9 to 5, which already leaves you with little freetime, and then, if you have kids, you have to plan for them, and then it’s like “Who told younger me that being an adult was anything but excitement?” Unless, of course, you win the lottery or invested all your money into bitcoin 15 years ago, otherwise there’s a pretty good chance your life sounds about as I described.

Now, I’m turning 13, and while that’s realistically not that close to having-a-child age, it’s one step closer, which is one step further away from my eternal bliss and freedom I receive as a child (not true at all, it’s a joke, that’s why it’s funny).

Another thing you acquire with age is responsibilities, unless your age is too much age, then you start to lose responsibilities again. No one likes responsibilities, unless you’re weird and enjoy suffering. It is nice, though, as I “evolve” into a teenager, to be able to do things like go hang out with my friends at the mall unsupervised (not the best idea but don’t tell anyone I said that), or buy the insanely sugary mango drink that the random guy that waits outside my school everyday sells (also not a good idea but that’s not the point). In my opinion, the most annoying thing about growing older is as you get towards the upper levels of middle school and high school, gossip starts to have an upwards trend, which is fun until it’s about you.

Overall, I’m pretty excited to be turning 13, but if I could just stop there for a while, like a sabbatical for aging, so I can avoid all that messy tax stuff and job applications.

My favorite saying, and what I would tell my 6-year-old version if I could, is, “Live life to its fullest because one day that life will be torn away from you by a giant office building and crying babies.” (This saying is written by me, right now, also assumes that AI isn’t in the picture, not very realistic but who cares.)