ADOLESZENZ

Lilly Pelz

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For some of us, growing up is easy. It comes naturally, it may even be seen as a goal that we wait to achieve and that we want to reach and feel with our bare hands. Like waiting to get our drivers license, finish school, graduate, marry, have children. It’s the way life unfolds. Being born, growing up, dying. For others, it’s not exactly that simple. It’s not a straight way, it comes with challenges that we did not foresee when we were little. Growing up can be a real fight sometimes, because it actually means so much and consists of so many little steps, that are not always obvious. It can mean to be your own mother, as well as your own child. It’s about being independent, as well as simply accepting that we all depend on someone and that we need certain people in our lives. It’s about understanding and knowing who these people are, who you want to surround yourself with. It’s about feeling incredibly vulnerable, more than you ever felt in your life and at the same time being so at ease with yourself, feeling so at home in your own body and gazing at all the progress you made in the past. When deer grow up, they discard their antlers every year. This process looks quite bloody and brutal, but it does not hurt them, it’s just a necessary part of their way to adulthood. Growing up as a human can feel exactly like that. You grow out of certain habits and it may seem hard at first to drop them, but in the end it’s important to live through phases like these to grow into the person you are. After all, isn‘t life just about that? About being the most „you“ you can be. About learning what you like, what you dislike, what your passion is, where to set your boundaries, when to grow beyond yourself and understanding, that this process never really ends.