On Growing Up

Dear Friend,

When I was little, I used to think there was a magical day when you opened your eyes and suddenly knew how to answer questions, how to make things work out, and the answer to life's most difficult quandaries. Seriously, I did.

And that day you sat up in bed and went, "Wow! I'm a grown-up."

Excuse me while I laugh. I'll blame it on my parents for being so dang good at parenting. Even if they didn't have the answer, I still knew they'd figure out how to make things work out. But you know what?

Neverland is real. Neverland is here.

Growing up just means one day you wake up and realize you don't have your stuff together, you'll never have it all together--and that's okay.

It really is okay. We're all juggling balls and dropping them. It doesn't mean we're bad or immature or--God forbid--a millennial. It just means we're humans and life is complicated.

But life can be wonderful in its complexity. The days when everything goes wrong can end up as some of your funniest stories if you take the right slant in telling about them. And if you can't laugh and you break down instead, that's okay too. You're not alone. We're all right here with you. That person who looks like they've got their stuff altogether, I promise you, she doesn't. So let's stop comparing ourselves and focus on the places where we can do best what we can do.

After all, to live is an awfully big adventure.