Walk, Don't Run

- The Ventures

You know you're an adult when...

So, now it’s official. I am an adult. It had nothing to do with me getting married (2 years already). Nothing to do with the fact that I bought a house this year. Nothing at all with paying bills or even turning 30 in the next few weeks! IT all boils down to this... I bought life insurance! Yikes! Now that’s freaking becoming an adult. That’s when you know those carefree days are over*sob*

The fact that I’ve been doing very adult-like things lately have made me quite nostalgic. The other day while I was pulling out of a parking lot, I saw a father with his 2 kids at the ice cream shop. The two kids were just so engrossed in their ice creams cones, savouring each lick, big grins on their faces, enjoying the very meaning of summer...No school, No responsibility, and Ice cream dribbling down your chin while your older brother makes fun of you. I don’t think they had any clue that these are some of the best moments of their lives. What happened to those days? Where did they go? When did I become this person that buys life insurance? In my brain, I’m still a 10 year old kid, wanting to bike to the corner store for Gobstoppers, waste hours playing video games, and getting into mischief.

It’s not often that I get to hang out with kids, but when I do, it totally irks me that they look at me with that look. You know which one I’m talking about... The one you used to give to adults when you were a kid. The look that says...You don’t know how to have fun. You’re boring. You’re old. You’re my mom’s friend. Blech! I used to give that look to my parents friends when they would come over to our house, pinch my cheeks, tell me how much more I’ve grown and then blab for hours over coffee. Those adults seemed so boring; sipping their coffee, gossipping about more boring people - while my cousins, Curly (my sister) and I bounced on the sofas downstairs, sneaked out the fancy "guests-only"chocolates from my Mamina's secret hiding place and watched Waterbabies for the 400th time while singing along at the top of our lungs.

Just last Xmas when my cousins were over, we spent the whole afternoon playing one of our old favorites (4 way-Mariokart on Ninten64) hooting and laughing and blasting eachother off the track. Our parents just shook their heads sadly AS IF there is something wrong with a bunch of twentysomethings playing videogames like children....Nothing wrong with that I say. My cousins and I often joke that one day, we’ll all be in some nursing home in our 80's, half-blind, in diapers and still fighting over who get to be Yoshi in MarioKart... DIBS!.

I guess that old saying that you’re only as old as you feel is true, regardless of what some stuffy, boring, insurance-salesman tells you. And based on that, we all know I’ll be forever 12, which suits me just fine. Life is just that much sweeter as a kid! Ice cream anyone?