Coming of Age Responses

Childhood- My Gmail Account

Starting when I was 7 years old, I desperately wanted to be a grown up. I felt like one, I basically acted like one­ – very mature is what my parents called it. But it wasn’t enough for me. It annoyed me that people didn’t look at me the way I wanted them too. I didn’t get the privileges and things my older friends did, I couldn’t go out by myself. I was a child I had just started hating it.

So, when I convinced my parents to let me create a Gmail account the summer before 3^rd grade, I was ecstatic. This was a big step for me; I was given the permission to chat and send emails to my friends and family, whoever. I could customize my account and truly make it mine.  And for a second, I felt like an adult; I stood a little bit taller.  Although I knew no one would see me differently because of it, I saw myself differently. I now had proof that I was older at heart.

            Now I know this must sound like this is a coming of age moment – I realized something and I changed in some way. Though this moment –Gmail– really represented and defined most of my childhood. See, I never really thought of myself as “little” and when these opportunities for me to get a hold of proof came along, I gladly took them; in this case, my email account.

But even though I honestly believed I was growing up at 7 years old, obviously, I wasn’t. I wish I had known that because for a long time, the back of my mind was filled with thoughts of waiting and wanting to become older and wiser and cooler than I was at that moment. So when I discovered Gmail, it made me feel all of those things and I loved it.  I know it’s ridiculous to think that a website could affect me so greatly but it did and that’s why it’s the best artifact I could think of to symbolize one of the most important parts of my childhood.

Coming of Age- my iPod

I’ve never felt like I’ve needed to escape

That is until now

I’ve never needed so much to forget

Some unfortunate incidents

Even only for a few beautiful minutes

If that’s what being older brings

I regret wanting it so deeply

I did, didn’t I?

I wanted it more than anything.

Now I’m there

And the freedom’s great

I can do anything and I love it

But there are complications,

Always complications.

A feeling I can’t seem to shake

So,

I blast my iPod until I can’t hear

Anything

Until my senses are numb

and the song is my soundtrack and

I pretend for a while

that everything about the world

is perfect.

I turn the volume up because I now know

That it isn’t.

That’s really

Growing

up