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The Defining Moments in Becoming a Grown-up
They’re defining for a reason…because they either make you or they break you
I turned thirty this year and I’m shocked to say that it wasn’t nearly as scary or horrible as I had anticipated it would be in the years leading up to it. In hindsight, I’m actually quite impressed with how natural it felt — like I’ve been preparing for it all along. Like I was ready.
I soon realized that the simplicity of adding an extra digit to my age wasn’t really the thing that scared me after all. Instead, it was all of the things that came with it that made me truly nervous.
It was the realization that as I get older, the people around me — in particular, my parents — are also getting older too. And the helplessness that you feel in knowing that you can’t stop time for those people, let alone yourself, is what makes growing up a little terrifying.
Those defining moments when you know that you’ve become a grown-up are the ones that pack the biggest punch. They’re the moments that stay with you forever. And those moments, as difficult and terrifying as they may be, eventually come in everyone’s life at one point or another.
I personally have had to deal with some of these moments in life so far. Here are just some of them.