20Something Growing Pains

By Geri Oh

The past has a funny way of never showing up again

Till you dig

Through the archives of social media

Your favorite tweets, most-liked photos and FB statuses of yester-year

Show that

You have been here

All along

Existing

Living

Feeling

& you wonder why you worry about your current position

Like for 20+ years you committed nothing

Just materialized into the present

Transformed from dust into a grown adolescent

A baby adult - stuck

Crawling in the dark

Exploring the world before you like it too never existed

What’s missing?

Besides confidence and stability

Besides that naivete springing from false security

That’s why High School & College years were so happy.

Cause we had less responsibility - even the ones who

handled much more than our peers

Back then we could say our parents didn’t do such and such

Now our parents aren’t here

To decide our lives

Our passions

Our healthy habits

We are on our own

Both freeing & terrifying

Yet we can go far if only we stay committed to trying

to failing until we fix our wings to make it become flying

to falling down & getting lost in the dark once more

Only to repair our wings & retry an alignment with the air

Like we accomplished before

Now we go higher than before

Breaking through the clouds, wishing they were dense enough to rest on

But we keep going

from flying to falling to learning

It’s the never-ending course of life.

Cause how can we appreciate the sky

If there’s no dirt to look back down upon?