by Joseph Simone
The shaggy headed man child with the receding hairline grasps for the remaining piece of ordinary
Too grown too fast, from Super Smash Bros to driving to confused wandering through 42nd Street Times Square to running with untied shoelaces to 67th Street on the Upper West Side
Never fond of childhood, he never feared growing up
Growing up in his life meant a continual theme of more fun, more expression, more choice and more individuality as his white and loving parents added little to his responsibilities
Growing up is a mystical electrifying experience for an 18 year old that doesn’t do his own laundry
Growing up means arbitrarily going out later and no longer being shamed when he has sex
Growing up still meant no drugs or alcohol, but the shaggy headed man child wasn’t interested in drugs
Though he had a ritualistic sweetspot for alcohol
Maturity hit strikingly as the scruff bearded childman walked around campus unsure what to eat as the cafeteria never opened that day
Maturity meant dinner á la animal crackers and realizing the looming consequences of the mistake he made
Maturity meant going to a concert without any word to his parents
Reality called promptly and ensured the 7 was closed at 1 am on a Thursday morning with no alarm and escorted the sweaty denim clad boy back on the 12:36 to home
Growing up meant his parents picked him up at 2 am on a Thursday
Stupidity highlighted the mistake of not filling out the Uber app’s credit card information before he left that night
Hindsight meant knowing that all of this could have been avoided
Immaturity meant not having his own debit card to fill the Uber’s financial information with
No credit meant no prior job and a telling of his pampered immaturity
Home meant he wasn’t getting to class tomorrow
Optimism told him it didn’t matter
Reality soon chimed in and lightly aired “I agree”
