Growing Up

The transformation from a doe- eyed child to realist adult with aching bones and an ice- cold heart is complicated. 

What a child learns from others is just the physical process. Puberty, crazy hormones and pimple breakouts. 

I believe that the moment childish innocence is overtaken by the cruel realisation of the world is when a child learns to accept pain. 

It can start small. Like a deodorant bottle striking a knuckle of a toe and the urge to scream, to cry, to kick out in frustration is quenched. Then an inch becomes a foot, and the foots stack to form a road a mile long. It becomes choking tears back and clawing at clothes at a loved one's funeral. It becomes bleeding lips and furrowed brows under the spittle of an unreasonable teacher. And the child begins to accept not just their own pain but others' as well. It is a listening ear and consoling pats on the back. Then finally, to complete the process, an ability to use pain against the enemy is honed.

And now she joins the ranks of the mature.