Growing Up – Written February 1993 (Aged 18)

Growing Up

Growing up, it sure is weird.
Wouldn’t it be nice just to disappear?
Anyone you confront,
it’s two of the same:
love and fear.
Wouldn’t it be nice
to forget your worries
for a day or two?
Wouldn’t it be nice,
if just for a while,
you could not be seen?
Because growing up,
it sure is weird.
And it is even weirder
when you are an emotional teen.
What am I meant to be?
A spirit wandering
happy and free,
or a media stereotype
full of hype?
Is my vision meant to be
blurred by peer group pressure
that I cannot see?
Or a new age traveler
swigging cider
and growing a fantastic beard?
Is being a teen just confusing?
Or is the whole process
of growing up just weird?
It is everything I dreamed of,
and yet, everything I feared.
Drugged up, spaced out,
bloodshot eyes—
some kids see a strange
route to adulthood.
But why get there
so soon?
Out too late,
tanked up to the brim,
are these just silent cries
from the teens
who sleep till noon?
Growing up is so weird.
The trouble is, kids today,
they are expected
to grow up so fast.
Sometimes it’s far too soon,
and all those fears
turn to salt lake tears.
Growing up sure is weird.

James Garratt – 1993

More poems at:
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/

More about this blog, The Boy Behind the Glasses, here:
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/2020/01/08/the-boy-behind-the-glasses-an-introduction/

More poems from 1993 here:
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/category/poems-and-writing-1993/