Advice from a Kindergartener

My first day of kindergarten was not a good experience. You're probably thinking it is because I had separation anxiety or maybe there was a little mini-bully. Good guesses, but no. The real reason is because I didn't learn how to read on the first day. Apparently, what I had picked up on over the weeks leading up to the beginning of my education was that kindergarten is where you learn to read. Obviously I missed the memo that it takes longer than one day. I have always had the tendency to be an overdramatic, need-to-have-all-my-ducks-in-a-row kind of girl.

I still feel this irritation begin to emerge as I am trying to learn to be an adult. I want to be the "good" kind of adult that is selfless and responsible. The kind that effortlessly blends childlike zest for life with a mature sense of self and the world. And the six year old inside of me WANTS IT NOW!!!

I need to learn a lesson from my kindergarten self: one doesn't learn to read in a day and neither does one learn to be an adult overnight. If I were already perfectly responsible there would be no "quarter-life crisis." The key is to keep the good parts of being a kid (catching fireflies, sleeping in and watching cartoons on saturdays, dreaming) and cut out the bad (avoiding veggies, throwing tantrums because you didn't learn how to read, sticking silly putty up your nose). I think if we master that, we're better off than a lot of "adults."

In the words of our good friends from Scrubs, "I thought growing up was something that happened automatically as you got older. But it turns out it's something you have to choose to do."*

*borrowed from the blog Playing Grown Up