Growing up can be scary and daunting, but there are many great aspects which we can look forward to as we transition from childhood to adolescence, and eventually adulthood.
Here are just a few benefits of growing up and all the things they can do in order to set us up for a happy and fulfilling life.
It's true that you don't realise what's truly important to you until you're older enough to answer this question for yourself. An important part of this is realising what your values, morals and ambitions are so that you can shape the rest of your life around these. Understanding what's important to you personally will help you to know exactly what to strive for in life and experience the rewards of success, naturally.
When you're young, you know what your hobbies and interests are, your favourite foods, songs and colours and other trivial things along these lines. But getting to know yourself on a deeper level comes with age, time and patience. This can mean finding your 'identity', your place in the world and what kind of life you want for yourself.
Growing up is also when we start to become independent and stand on our own two feet. We take our first steps into the real world and find out how rewarding it feels to accomplish, achieve and succeed at something that we've done for ourselves. This is because we know that it was our own effort entirely and we didn't receive any outside help that could account for our success.
Another part of growing up is learning to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions. Often when we're young, we have a parent or guardian looking over our shoulder who can help us out of any trouble we find ourselves in, but the responsibility becomes solely our own once we grow up.
Having perspective means seeing the world a certain way and your personal outlook on life, and as the name suggests it's all about how you perceive things in a general sense. No two people will have exactly the same perspective of life, which creates plenty of variety and diversity.
When we're young decisions are made for us by family, guardians and friends. This is often because we may not have the ability to make decisions ourselves, particularly major or life-changing ones. But as we grow up, we shift over to take steering wheel from someone else's hands and take control of our own lives, starting with decision-making.
It's true that we never stop learning, and that's one of the great things about growing up. There is no expectation that you're to know everything and have all the answers by the time you're a certain age, which relieves a lot of pressure we would constantly have to face and live up to if things were different.