We all have at one time in life gone from being a kid to an adult. It is quite the process. When we are a kid living at home we have no cares in the world, not even a thought about our future, but as time goes on and our days are numbered, we soon graduate and get a job. We begin to take notice of what life is all about and the day comes when we move out of the family house and out on our own. But have we prepared ourselves for the truth of life? Here is a poem by Rudyard Kipling which has good advice for everyone who has become an adult.
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you; if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too; if you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, or, being hated, don’t give way to hating, and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; if you can dream—and not make dreams your master; if you can think and not make thoughts your aim; if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same; if you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to broken, and stoop and build ’em up with worn out tools; if you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss; if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”; if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings nor lose the common touch; if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; if all men count with you, but none too much; if you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”
Becoming an adult is not when you become a certain age. There is more to life than meets the eye. When you were a child you had very little responsibility but as you become an adult you now must take on the responsibilities of your actions and decisions and sometimes even the weight of the world. Still in school? Then begin to prepare for being an adult. If you are out of school then take the responsibility of being an adult and that can be by helping someone who is not yet out on their own. Become a mentor for someone who may not have a father or mother. Be a big brother or sister. Become a volunteer and help someone who is in need of a friend. Be a tutor for those who need help in school. Tell those who are younger what you have learned by being older. There is always someone who needs good advice. Tell them what you went through and what you have learned. Knowledge is priceless, being a friend is everything to those who do not have anyone to talk to, to look up to, to even follow or to be like. We all have experiences that we can share with those who have not yet become an adult. As Kipling writes, “If you can…”