When Taylor Swift wrote ‘Blank Space’ (I got a blank space, baa-by, and I’d write your name), she was really writing about adulthood. Well, technically, she was writing about how relationships have become. Well, most relationships. Relationships have had some altering with their meaning. I’m speaking of romantic relationships and real ones here. But, my 7 year old neighbour just informed me that his relationship is very serious and his 7 year old girlfriend is very pretty and gets him lots of candies and gives him a sticker everyday.
But, this whimsical chatter isn’t about 7 year olds and their relationships. It’s about how adulthood has framed out. As a child, I’ve always fantasized about growing up and becoming an adult. As an adult of some kind, I still fantasize about the same. I keep waiting for the light of adulthood to shine my way to walk into. Almost like being Jennifer Garner’s character from 13 going 30. That I’m a 22 year old child who will magically one bright morning transform into a 22 year old adult. In all my fantasies, my mind and wise-ness ages, but never me.
However, I have been informed, adulthood as arrived. Nobody threw me a party to tell me. It just creeps into your life and one day you wake up an adult. Like 13 going 30. Except maybe it would be more like 29 going 30. Hasn’t happened yet, folks.
Oh, so what got me starting with this chatter? I was doing the dishes while my earphones blared with some Taylor Swift (among other songs) and ‘Blank Space’ came on. So, obviously, I decided to sing along and dance a little. When the lyrics ‘Baby, I’m a Nightmare dressed like a Daydream’ came on, GROWING UP came to my mind. (And then I sang- ‘I Wish I Neveeeeeeeer Grew Up’, also Tay-Tay). Then I realized, all our lives we keep waiting for the future, when I have that, when I do that, when I go there. There is always a longing for the future. Similarly, there is a longing for the adulthood, whatever that pie is.
Things were much different when we were children (some 15 years ago). Adults, at that time, didn’t do what we do. Oh, they were just as messed up as us, but it was just different. But, change is the only constant, and with our adulthood, change indeed has come. Adulthood, today, is much different. Maybe because the dream and the reality didn’t collide it raised a conflict of another kind.
Adulthood, in the simplest of definitions, is a nightmare dressed like a day-dream. (Although, smashing a vintage car or a tree repeatedly would be very excellent stress buster.
SWATINESS 