Snow Melt

That Grown-Up Feeling

The March 19, 2013 prompt for "Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum"  is
When was the first time you really felt like a grown-up (if ever)?

I had to laugh when I read the prompt because there are times I do not feel like a grown-up. Sometimes I feel as if I am a helpless child waiting for an adult to give me to help me cross the street. This feeling normally occurs when a situation is out of my control, at these time I want to sit down and cry. I have felt that way often, since my mother passed on and I suspect it has something to do with the mourning and grief. Now that I have gotten that out of my system, I will respond to the prompt.

It's that grown-up feeling,
you know the emotion I'm talking about,
that big girl feeling you get
the first time you
cross the street by yourself
or make your own breakfast.

When was the first time I really felt like a grown-up? That is a good question; I know it had to have something to do with being able to walk to school by myself or make my own breakfast. I was the oldest child, so I was able to walk to grade school by myself for two or three years before I had to walk with my little sister. When I was growing up, most parents did not worry about someone taking their children as they walked to school. I am sure I did not walk to school by myself in the first grade; however, by the second grade I could walk by myself in relative safety, but I was making my own breakfast before that or at least part of my breakfast.

When was the first time I really felt like a grown-up? It had to be when I poured dry cereal in a my bowl, spooned in sugar, and then poured milk in the bowl over the cereal. That was a good moment because I did not have to depend on either of my parents to fix my cereal for me. True, Mom still toasted my bread, but I could spread butter and jelly on it as well. I knew the moment I was able to fix my own breakfast I was a big girl because I did not have to depend on someone else to fix me something to eat. I did not matter that the only thing I could fix myself was cereal, all that mattered was that I could do it myself.

This is something I have not thought about in years. I think one reason that being able to make my own breakfast, even if it was only dry cereal and milk, gave me a sense of freedom. I was able to do something by myself without any help, which suggested, at least, to my child's mind that I have more freedom of accomplishment.

Thought of the Day: Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes. - E. M. Forster