WJBC Forum: I don’t want to grow up!

Posted on May 13, 2016

By Arlene Hosea

I don’t want to grow up.  I have decided that I am not going to grow up.  I want to play with my doll houses, have many teas, play with the bubble machine, skip in the rain, buy myself a set of drums and create new beats.  I am not ready to grow up, not yet.

I want to live a life that is totally fun, of course I will get the grown stuff done.  But as each day comes and goes, I am not ready to grow up and set around and stare at my toes.

I want go to the park and fly a kite, I want to climb a tree and discover new heights.  I want to pretend that Superman is my best friend and play superheroes until the day comes to an end.

I do not  want to grow up, not just yet, I want to make paper planes and let them soar through the house like they are jets, get the hose out and make my friends wet.   I want to dress up like a princess one day and live in my castle with guards to keep the evil villains away. I want to read Dr. Seuss, Mother Goose, play Candyland, Chutes and Ladders and Old Maid while drinking red Kool Aid.

Oh, I am not ready to grow up yet, no not yet.  I am only 56,  an age that I once thought was old.  But what did I know? I lived my life the way I thought was right, and gave up my childhood, whoosh it was gone overnight.  Well I am going to now look at life through the eyes of my youth.  I realize that my age does not make me old.  It’s all that stuff that I was told.

It is the spirit in which I live my life full of difficult things, stress and strife.  This is the only life on earth that I will have and after all of the grown up things I must do, I am going to do the fun things I once knew.  Why should I grow up?   I don’t have to!

Arlene Hosea was born and raised in Bloomington.  She retired from Illinois State University and is on the Board of Directors for Special Olympics Illinois.  She has also served on the Town of Normal Human Relations Commission, The Baby Fold and the YWCA Board of Directors.  Arlene resides in Normal.

The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media, Inc.

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