HawkTalk
Mark Beyer

Growing up: The Pros and Cons

The beauty about college is growing up and staying young all in the same place, at the same time. Every kid dreams about growing up and every adult wishes they could go back to their youth.

Today I’m going to give you the low down on growing up. I feel qualified to dip my toes in on this subject due to the fact that being in PA school really forces you to grow up a little quicker.

Pros to growing up:

#1: More responsibility

carpe diem

Who likes being told what to do by your parents? That’s why you come to college, right? To get away from the control and have some more freedom. Well, once you leave the nest, your freedom and responsibility goes off the chart. Choose if you want to wake up, choose to go to class, chose when to eat…every choice is yours. Carpe Diem!

#2: You get to do more cool things

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When you turn 18 you can enter the lottery, vote, get a tattoo, go skydiving, donate blood, and explore nightlife. When you turn 21 you get to drink, turn 25 you can rent a car… tons of cool things, more responsibility.

#3: It’s exciting

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Building on the previous, all those things are more exciting. You grow up and you get to do things without your parents. It’s your life now and you get to call the shots. You reap the benefits of making the right choices. Get excited and embrace the growth.

Cons:

#1: More Responsibility

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When you run away with all your responsibility...

Well now that you call your own shots, you reap the consequences if you mess up. Which you will — everyone does, so don’t worry about that. Just learn from the mistakes so they don’t happen again. The rebound can be a great learning experience and lead to more growth.

#2: Less free time

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You wake up at 6, go to bed at 11. You work from 8-5. Relaxing time during the week becomes a thing of the past. You’re tired or you have other life tasks to take care of (house work, handling your money, extra work you have to do at home, there are a million things).

#3: No longer have the excuse of “You’re a kid”

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When you crash your bike into your neighbor’s bike it’s a kid thing to do. When you crash your car into someone's car, that’s a serious problem that can change your life forever. Your parents can’t bail you out and your age can’t bail you out. It gets a little tougher and you have to make better judgment calls than you did in your earlier years.


All in all, if you do it right (which I’m sure you will), the Pros of growing up outweigh the Cons by a long shot. Embrace the years ahead of you and all the fun times that are coming. Soak it up while you’re in college because it’s the last 4 years of being a kid.