If I were to go back to my elementary or middle school self this would be what I would say in a more gentle way of course
The independence and maturity that you are yearning for is not all that it’s cracked up to be. The rush that you are in to grow up is keeping you from embracing the ease and comfort of childhood. As you grow up you will soon realize the self-awareness that comes with it, and the older you get and the more self-aware you become and the heavier life will begin to feel as it falls on your shoulders. And yes there is more freedom to do whatever you want but the timing seems to line up perfectly and right when that freedom falls in your lap so does the responsibility, to figure out who you are, what you are going to do with your life, who you want to be. So right when you exhale and feel a release your next inhale may feel different than you’ve expected it to. Everything that you so badly want to grow out of and grow up from you will miss. I think the only way to learn this is the hard way, and it kind of feels like a slap in the face but it’s just something we all have to go through. The number of people that tell us when we are a kid to “not grow up to fast” gets annoying and never resonates with us because we think they want us to stay young for them, but they want us to stay young for us because as soon as we know it our mom isn’t packing our lunch anymore, and our dad isn’t taking us to school on Fridays when he’s off and all these little things that came so easy to us are now in our hands, and our life is handed to us. And all of a sudden you are holding your own hand.
