I wrote an article about how growing up was a journey and that you need to enjoy every bit of it the way I do. Turns out there's no growing up happening really, you're just basically enjoying while others sort out your mess. Growing up in reality is a pain in every fucking inch of your body. You will end up getting to stay in a house that's on the third freaking floor and issues of weight and ego hassles that come with it are only yours to cater to. If there is no lift there just isn't one and no... you're not important enough (Mayawati or Suresh Kalmadi) to have one put just because you want it.
You will have to figure out the routes to various places. If someone tells you that you'll reach college from a certain place after two fly-overs, you cannot take it for granted. The auto rider won't stop till you've crossed four and you're about to go on the fifth after which you do end up reaching your college. No he didn't want to trick you because lets face it not everyone wants to do that. You just can't take information like this for granted. Having said that, since you are in a new city and commuting by public transport for the first few times in your life, you are not really paranoid if you make escape strategies in your head just in case the auto walla doesn't stop the vehicle or drives into some remote unknown area.
There will be days when you're romantic idea about the rains and the sheer majestic beauty of it will go for a toss and dampen your spirits . Water logging, no dried or semi dried stinking soggy clothes or even having to walk in puddles will become regular episodes which you can do nothing about. You learn to live with it, find beauty, humour or some other thing out of them because they will get you to not be grumpy and angry.
I thought eating at small dhabas would be fun but it turns out you really have to walk miles before you eat. By the time you reach one you realize it's not the one you were ready to suffer a heart failure for. Areas where you eat can be really dirty and you may sanitize your hands a million times but the possibility of your contriving jaundice doesn't go away. You just take God's name and eat and don't stop for anything because the food turns out to be awesome.
Trust issues creep up. What you were in the past always comes to haunt you in the present day. You don't get to blame anyone just because you were once an over-indulged child that has now woken up and decided to be mature and responsible. It's a painstaking gradual process. The funny thing here is that people around you want you to be a certain way but are too scared you'll crumble under the pressures of surviving. It's like they want to leave you and let you ride the damn bicycle yourself but are too scared to loosen their grip on it from behind. The fact is that the training wheels have to come off. If you fall you get bruised or break a bone or God forbid lose a tooth but in the end mange to get out of it with a band-aid or plaster and a possible tetanus shot. The lost tooth bit... shit!! That's just like the worse case scenario.
All I am saying is -and this is more to myself than anyone but if the shoe fits (or doesn't stink) feel free to wear it- that growing up gets harder each day. There'a a new thing you learn or have to learn each day - haggling or managing your mobile bill or not buying that really nice expensive piece of clothing- and you have to do it with a smile on your face. Everyone has their own crap to deal with and no one cares if yours stinks more than theirs! For girls the comforts of the elastic training bra have to be traded for the intricacies of the hooked ones and for boys... umm... I don't know... being human becomes a necessity! We all have to become older and wiser and talk sense. That's just how it goes.
(Learnt just this from my 1st week in college and independent living... looks like I have a lot to know!)
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