Don't grow up; just wise up will do.

Often, you see someone doing something silly and deep down inside your heart you’d wish they would grow up. Or when you see people doing something you find distasteful. I used to do that too; whenever I see people feeling proud about embarrassing themselves I’d think to myself “grow up, please,” or when someone does something stupid and thinks aloud that it’s the best possible course of action to solve whatever problem they are currently facing. Like when someone clasps their hands together getting all schizophrenic thinking that that, coupled with lounging around all day, is going to make their wishes come true. Now, though, I’d just tell them to ‘wise up’ as opposed to ‘grow up’.

You see, there is a major difference. To grow up is to stop doing funny things, be self-conscious, be less optimistic and of course, be wiser. To wise up, on the other hand, is just to be wiser. Of course when I say wiser, more often than not I mean just merely smarter, or at least less daft as opposed to the complete package of wisdom which includes being smarter and more understanding. What I am saying here is to wise up is to gain all the benefits of growing up with none of the drawbacks. It is possible to wise up and not grow up, though such a thing isn’t exactly common.

So what I’m saying now is that when people do silly or distasteful things, I’m merely asking that they know if what they are doing has a proper point to it. So when you’re being silly, if you have a point, then I guess to a certain extent it is fine, but if you’re being distasteful, then you should realize that it is not only that, but has no point to it at all other than making you seem like an arsehole.

Why am I saying this? Because people who have the benefit of being humorous and optimistic should continue to be so. Sure, to grow up is also to accept the harshness of reality, which often results in a suffering level of optimism. Sometimes though, it is better to just be incapable to accept the harshness of reality and keep being optimistic. When I say optimistic I’m not saying that you be daftly hopeful that you get schizophrenic and laze around hoping for miracles to happen; I’m saying that to the things you do there will be something you look forward to at the end, while still being aware that in life what you look forward to and what you actually get don’t usually match.

I’m saying all this because I didn’t exactly have the stereotypical childhood everyone else experiences. Thanks to a paranoid father with paradoxical values, I don’t have the luxury of a social life as a kid and thus, as an adult, don’t have the many luxuries that come with it, like friends, or a sense of humour, or the benefit of being able to open up to people, to be able to know that there are others who are willing to share your burden when things get too heavy, and to allow them to do so. This gives me a lot of time to think, to reflect, to ponder and as a result, to wise up.

The problem is that for a boring person to wise up is the same as for the average person to grow up; in the end, both of them are boring and not optimistic. In other words, I’ve been denied the luxury of being a wise but interesting and optimistic person before I had the autonomy to make such a choice. But for others who do have the luxury of a choice, don’t let it go to waste because more often than not it is a one way thing; there’s no turning back once you’ve crossed the line.

Just yesterday, a close friend told me that he’s starting to get bitter about life and that he’s starting to be like me. That is a really major thing for him to be saying because as far as I can tell, he is a funny guy with optimism as far as the sky is blue on a clear morning. It really takes a lot for an optimist to lose their key defining feature. Sure, his childhood wasn’t much better than mine, as far as I’m aware of at least, but he has one thing that makes all the difference, especially at a young age: a social life. And with what little first-hand experience that I have, that really makes all the difference.

So to answer your question, no, it isn’t a good thing, because if you become like me, you’re not you anymore, are you? You’re just another me, and that’s never a good thing, no matter how you look at it.

To everyone else, no matter if you’re as daft as hell or if you’re just plain insensitive, just wise up, please. To the wannabe schizophrenics, I know telling them to wise up, and expecting it to happen, is as impossible telling the sun to freeze up, but I’ll do it anyway. So guys, wise up please.

And with that, adieu to y’all.