Growing Pains

I'm only five feet tall. 

I'm about to turn 18 years old. 

When I was young,

I threw a tantrum on the kitchen floor, 

Begging and pleading with my mom,

"I don't want to grow up!"

As you can see, 

I have anyway.

Guess I didn't plead loud enough.

It's something everyone does,

the way life goes, if you will. 

I didn't have a choice of facing my fear.

But I did have a choice of how to face it. 

It's not that I was scared of growing old or dying,

I was scared of losing the lust for life, the vigor, 

The happiness and passion, the carelessness, 

that a child possesses. 
 

I am only five feet tall. 

I am about to turn 18 years old. 

I chose to grow up. 

To live my life with a lust for it, vigor,

happiness and passion, carelessness (only sometimes of course)

to keep the emotions that a child possesses. 

If I'm the height of a child, I might as well act like one, right? 

I learned that growing up and growing old are two different things. 

Both are inevitable.

So are a lot of things, 

But how you choose to grow up, 

that

That is what makes the difference.