I Want to Grow Up, but Not Yet

Question:

I’m seventeen years old and sometimes worry about growing up. There was some crazy stuff that went on at home and my father hurt me and my family in a lot of ways, and I feel like being an adult will keep me from being worth loving and protecting. Am I still a child? Am I still growing up? I do want to grow up, but not yet.

Phyllis replied:

This is so interesting, because Alice feels the same way in the book I’m writing now. There’s a certain amount of mourning that goes on when we leave one stage of life and go into another, no matter how much we’ve looked forward to it. You are both a child and an adult. I remember a minister saying to a couple he was marrying, “Remember that in every man, there is a little boy, and in every woman, a little girl.” There will always be things you miss, but new opportunities and privileges as well. Don’t be afraid to be loved as a woman. You don’t have to stay a child to be loved and cherished.

Posted on: February 24, 2010