The Ups and Downs of Growing Up

I’m sure you’ve all seen this recently. Kids are growing up faster. Wether we like it or not, the age of mental maturity is going down at an alarming rate with no consequence for physical maturaity. It is actually approaching the age of maturity perceived and required of boys and girls in old times.

You’ve all probably seen the news in the past months. Teenage boys molest other teenage boys. Rape is a common thing around the age of 14. Kids bring knives to school. 10-year-olds get kitchen knives and stab 6-year-olds. And the one that bothered me most was the brutalness of kindergarden children.

So, I ask you? What the fuck is going on? Is something fucked up in the world? Is something fucked up in this country? Or is it that parents have lost the ability to educate their sons and daughters?

Personally, I think it’s something that is simply happening. We can’t stop it but we sure can use it and divert it. With neglect or with care. Just take your pick.
The way I see it is like this: I work in a convenience store. And maybe there are 12-year-olds with knives in the city but here I only see them shopping. I see ‘kids’ only a few years younger than me doing the shopping my mom would not let me do when I was that age. I see my classmate’s younger brother doing all the shopping for his family. I see an 8 year old girl taking specific spices off the shelf for her mother and I see a 10 year old boy, all alone in the vegetable and fruit section, picking out the very best green onion, putting it in his cart and walking away.

I sure hope I don’t have to see postal or suicidal kids in my vicinity but as long as I see children acting like real adults, I still have hope. And everytime I think of this I can’t help but think of Ronni, a boy no more than 14 years of age who amazes me everytime I read one of his stories.


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