There are a few women in my ward my age or younger, with kids too. They are sweet and friendly, and they act so...mature. Like I feel like a teenager when I talk to them. They wear grown up clothes and its just in the way they talk. I feel like having three kids makes me grown up, and that I should be mature like these sisters. But I'm so not there. I still want to do crazy things. I still want to travel to crazy places and rock concerts and stay up way too late doing dumb things. I'm only 26, for gosh sakes! Why do I have to feel old just because I have a house and three kids? I just see these other women and how they act like experienced mothers, and I feel like I have more in common with the single college kids...Or like I want to interject into their very adult, and sometimes dull, conversation "I once swam naked in the Amazon river. That was wild."
I don't know. I don't think I'll ever feel old or mature like that. Just because I can't do as many crazy things because I do have these kids, it doesn't mean I can't make plans for when they're older, and do interesting things right now. Like read a book on Istanbul's markets, or visit the Hare Krishna temple. Its not that I feel social pressure to act as they do, just that I'm surprised by it, and don't feel quite like I fit in with them. Which is okay. We're all happy in our own spheres. And I have no intention of ever acting "old."
Sounds good to me! I hope you always stay young, Miss Shelley.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can find people in your ward that are more interesting and exciting. I've actually found that I've made good friends with the feisty, "older" ladies in my ward - they seem to have younger spirits.
Shelley, I think I completely agree with you. I do not think it is so much that we feel "younger" or anything, but more that we are just different people. And it is so much fun! So who cares! :D
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time calling the other women in the ward by their first names. I still feel like I am in YW. I am in the RS Presidency and I still feel this way. I'm okay with it though. Keeps me feeling young. Well, I am young.. you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky you've had the kind of a childhood that makes this a possibility. My mother was one of those children who raise their parents. I don't think she's ever not been a grown-up. And then.... she's my mother. So I was raised with a slightly absurd expectation of maturity and deportment. Issues. Your way sounds much healthier all around.
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