Kids Grow Up So Fast

I don't quite yet know what I hope people gain from what I'm about to write.

Is this advice to kids? To their parents? Maybe just a simple recap of the experiences I had when I was younger that can help both children AND their parents? We will see.

One thing we all know for sure is that kids are growing up faster and faster. I remember being in sixth grade and us kids looking at the elementary school kids and thinking, "wow kids are getting smaller," and that was always so funny to us. We simply didn't realize how much we were all growing, and how quickly. But that physical growth was nothing compared to the mental growth we were experiencing, and that which we were not.

The more I mature through life, the more I realize that my experiences were definitely not new to this world, and that a lot of people before me had gone through the same experiences. Of course, not everyone will experience all the same things. But most of these experiences have been had by someone.

I'll give a few examples from when I was younger. Wanting to be "cool" is something that everyone experiences through life, especially in the early days. In my experience, this really came to be for me and my peers in middle school. Before that, we were still mainly just growing and learning about the world in general. Middle school was really where we started to notice things that we liked, and wanted to be like, as well as noticing things that others liked, and we wanted to do or be those things too, so we would be liked that much as well. Of course, we had similar experiences in elementary school. However, middle school was really where it became worse, where bullying because of it became more prominent. Where cliques and ostracizing became much more real.

In high school it's even worse, too. Groups of students sticking together are more than just your generic high school teen movie. There really can be those cliques such as the athletes, the cheerleaders, science kids, et cetera. However, the more concerning main groups in all grades, and even after school too, are the "popular" and not popular kids. I believe this is where one of the biggest issues in our society stems from, and it's happening earlier and earlier. Kids feel that they need to be like those who are "cooler," and those who have more friends. A lot of kids will simply not be themselves, in order to get the approval of others, and to just fit in out of fear of being ostracized.

We have all had these types of experiences in school, right? Whether we were the ones who were in the cliques, or the ones trying to get their attention. I'm not writing this to try to throw blame around, or anything like that. All students are under pressure, whether it be from other students, or at home, or anywhere else. Everyone is going through something, and none of us ever really know what others are dealing with. My reason for writing this is to point out something, something many of us have already noticed but still I feel more should be aware of.

The term "kids grow up so fast" used to be said with a smile; we thought it was cute, a good thing. However, kids now seem to be maturing and growing much too fast, which I find concerning. Things that used to happen to kids in my high school days are now experiences kids are having as early as middle school or even earlier.

Remember that awkward makeup phase in middle school where we were just learning and it always just didn't come out right? Kids in middle school now are already makeup pros. Seriously, how? That's just a small example, though, of something that can be much more serious. My high school days were where most kids started to experiment with things such as smoking, drinking, even sex. That's something's that's been happening in high school for a long time. Lately, I've noticed these things have been being talked about in middle school, or even before. Of course, not all kids are actually acting on these topics. I still find this to be concerning even just being talked about by more young kids, though.

As well as things no one wants to talk about, such as bullying, and the effects of bullying, some of these effects being skipping school, doing badly in school, or even physically cutting themselves, are becoming much more serious much quicker. So many more kids are even trying to commit suicide because of these problems. We don't even realize how much pressure children really do feel, and the need to grow up so fast is what's causing it. Much more exposure to the real world is something that's exposing these kids to adulthood much faster, be it through social media or just online altogether. Kids are experiencing much more, much faster.

That is what convinced me to want to write about this issue. I know a lot of these things are just always going to be around. It's a long fight ahead to stop bullying, and to teach kids to be themselves. I truly do hope we slow down this need to mature, though. Kids deserve to be able to just be kids for as long as they can. I wish kids now could skip a lot of that and just come to realize the real maturity is when you realize you do not need to be the cool kid. You don't need the approval of those around you to be able to happy as who you are. Your real friends will really come into your life when you are yourself. I know, I wouldn't have believed it when I was in school either. Being something you're not is just going leave you with an unhappy feeling no matter what. We, adults and kids alike, don't need to try to be just like those other people around us. The world will be a lot more fun and interesting if we're all putting our own ideas and interests into it.

Again, I did not start writing this with a clear goal in mind. I just hope this is able to help those struggling with self image, or help those who want to help others with this issue, be it parents, or friends, or anyone. This is a very deep issue in our society and I believe it deserves as much attention as possible, to help work towards possible solutions.