When do we become grown-ups?

Is it when we can go down big waterslides alone

Or when we can do a thousand sit-ups?

Is it when we start driving

Or when we stop making stupid slip-ups?

 

The government says "Eighteen years of age!"

And most people are okay with that.

Some states say that a girl can have

A grown-up relationship when she is sixteen

And some people are okay with that.

Teenagers think it is when they can drive,

And the ones who can drive are okay with that.

 

Well, I can check "yes" on two of those things

But I don't think I'm a grown-up yet.

Maybe when I start having weekend flings

I'll start to feel like I'm growing up.

Maybe when I go to college and take breaks in the spring,

Or perhaps when someone is on one knee in front of me

With a button-up shirt, brown eyes, and a ring,

Maybe then I will be grown-up.

 

But I have to wonder if I'll ever feel grown up

When I still cry if people talk sternly to me.

Parents like to say "You think you know everything!"

But I think it is them who are self-dubbed omniscient, and they're free

To think that, too. No one laughs at a grown-up's politics

But if you express your opinions when you are less than thirty

Someone will laugh and tell you that you will regret saying that someday.

They will also muss your hair and call you "son" or "sport"... maybe.

 

Everyone chides when you say you do not want kids.

"You'll change your mind" is what they knowingly say.

What I hear, though, is

"Woman, remember your place! Go wash some dishes, okay?"

Maybe I want a career. Why are women still discouraged

From doing what they want, what they are good at, or what will pay?

I think I will enjoy being a grownup

Someday.