I really have to laugh at this one.
Grown up! I felt grown up before I could walk!
Some babies cry when they’re hungry. I probably sighed and thought, “Well, someone has to get this place organized.”
It wasn’t that I wanted to be grown up; it just sort of happened. Maybe it’s what comes from being surrounded by chaos, adults who behaved like children, and animals who had more common sense than the lot of them. I was the little one who’d already figured out how to read a room, mostly to know when to run or when to stay quiet.
I think some of us are born with that old soul thing. We’re taking mental notes while everyone else is learning to color inside the lines. By the time I was ten, I could’ve run a household, mediated a family dispute, and still had time to climb a tree before supper.
But here’s the funny part, I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to undo all that early responsibility. Trying to remember what it feels like to play, to take off the armor, to let myself be silly without the guilt that I should be “handling” something.
Somewhere along the way, I realized being “grown up” is mostly an illusion. People chase it like it’s a badge of honor, but half the “grown-ups” I’ve met are just tired kids with bills. Real maturity, I think, is learning when to set it all down,when to breathe, laugh, and choose wonder over worry.
Now, I take my tea outside in the mornings and let the birds give me the news. I let the wind mess my hair, and I talk to the dog as if he’s my therapist, because honestly, he’s better at listening.
And every now and then, when I start to get too serious, I hear Granny Frass in my head saying,
“Ah, would you stop with that long face, Mae! Life’s short, and nobody gets out without making a holy show of themselves at least once, might as well enjoy it!”
So maybe I was born old, but I’m working on aging backwards, one laugh, one muddy boot, one cup of tea at a time.
Mae 🧡
UNDER THE WILL... OVER THE DRAMA... 
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