Living in a small town, we ache to grow up. Many of us can’t wait to get our license, graduate and move as far away as possible. Are we growing up a little too fast? Every once in a while we realize that we are not little kids anymore. We have the pressure of picking what college we want to go to and deciding what job we want to do for the rest of our lives at only seventeen years old, and were forced to start thinking about it at an even younger age.

Sometimes, it feels like we are being forced to grow up and mature way too fast. We are expected to be mature even though we are still children. In this society, if we do not have our own opinions we are too childish, but if we do we’re trying too hard to grow up.

It is hard to say when the phenomenon of children maturing so fast occurred, but we know it is very prominent within Gen Z. While before, kids were able to just live their lives and have fun, but we are now expected to get a job, drive ourselves, and do mountains of schoolwork daily instead of just having a bit of time to actually be kids.

Social media may be part of the problem. Nowadays, kids are exposed to so much on the internet, much more than their young, impressionable minds should see. Since social media has shown children so many borderline traumatizing things, they have to mature and be able to face the terrible reality of the real world. Seeing things kids before would never be exposed to at such a young age like politics, war, and other terrible things can influence children’s minds. 

Growing up in this time period is a lot more difficult than parents might think, they would think they have a lot more control over their kids and how fast they grow up. It is time for them to face the facts. A lot of kids now not only have access to more things like the internet and transportation to go places or see the world and parents might be thinking their child is just exploring the world, but in reality what is happening is that they are growing up. 

The kids are rushing to grow up, rushing to get away from either their homes or just their towns. Either way, they are leaving. Parents also have a big part in this as well, pushing their kids to get jobs while being piled on with school work and trying to be sociable. 

We need to slow down and enjoy our childhood. We have the rest of our lives to be adults, but only right now to live out this part of our lives. So, dye your hair a bright color, do your makeup the way you want, live out your life just the way you want, and do not let anyone else tell you that you need to grow up.