Member-only story
Never Understood This Adult Thing
Waiting to become what I could never be
When you are twelve you want to be old, like your ancient parents in their thirties. I am tired of being treated like a kid, I want to be a grown up you whine. When you are in those thirties, your spouse of the moment is standing at the door, poised anger, as you come home from a late night out with college friends. My God she yells, are you ever going to grow up? Now your fifties, now you have arrived in true adulthood, but now your current, soon to be ex, spouse tells the couples counselor you refuse to grow up, that all you want to do is sit and write all day, doing just enough real work to keep us fed. You smile, shrug, know that is probably not the right response, and here you are, single again, forever the child you tried to escape. Oh, then your seventies sneak up on you, like a jewel thief chasing a Kardashian, and you finally realize there are no grownups, there never were, nothing left now but just old, grumpy children all angry because they want to be twelve again.
