Before I start, I have this question for you. Have you ever asked yourself how do we grow up? What are the processes we pass through? Well, everyone grows up differently.
A couple of days ago, I celebrated my birthday with my family. Because of the Corona lockdown, we couldn’t go out and celebrate, so my daughter cooked a fancy dinner that we shared happily. Earlier that day, she decided to bake a cake wher we gathered around all three generations, my grandchild, my daughter, and I to prepare the cake and bake it.
After finishing dinner, we sang Happy Birthday to me, blew out the candles, took some photos, and ate the cake. We had a lovely time, a time to remember. At night, I went to bed, as I had this habit since I was a child, to pray before sleeping, and asked myself, how do we grow up? I am 58 years old now, how time flies so quickly.
My life passed in front of my eyes like you rewind a movie and play it backward. I watched all the bad, and good moments I faced since I was a child, from when I got married to when I became a widow, a mother, a grandmother, and from a housewife to a designer and entrepreneur. All these ups and downs I passed through, all these barriers I had to cross, made me who I am now.
You see, growing up is not about getting older by age. It’s not about accumulating years, because naturally, it happens by itself. Everyone must pass through these phases, from being a baby to a toddler, from a child to a teenager, from a young person to an adult, but what matters is how we grow up, and the experiences and skills we get during this process.
Now, let’s go through the phases we grow up:
Knowledge: Some people work on themselves, they study or read more, they get new skills and qualifications, and they become more educated, knowledgeable, and wiser.
Business: Some people grow up in positions, from being, for example, an employee to a business owner.
Family: Some people change their marital status from being single to engaged, married, widow, or even divorced. From being parents, single parents, to grandparents, it depends.
Financially: From being poor or medium-level to rich or average, it depends on how much they want to grow up, or vice versa.
Spiritually: This is the phase that matters in growing up. Our relationship with God must accompany us through all the phases mentioned above. If it must change, it must be stronger because, without his existence in our lives, without his serenity, we won’t be able to move forward and evolve to be the best person we are looking for physically or mentally.
Finally, I hope you find the way you want to grow and adapt in your life.
Prepared by Latifa El Hachem, July 23, 2021
