Growing Up

I've always looked very young for my age.

When I was a kid, people used to think my sister Shauna (three years younger) and I were twins, because I was very short for my age and she was very tall. I remember once when we went to a carnival at our elementary (ah, those were the days!) She was a kindergartener and I was a second grader. We got in line for the same booth, and the very nice man running it tried to guess how old Shauna was.

"Are you in the third grade?" he asked. I was a little annoyed that he thought she was older than I was. Shauna shook her head. "Fourth grade?" She shook her head again. "FIFTH grade?" he sounded surprised, I'll grant him that. Shauna told him that she was in kindergarten. She took her turn at the booth, throwing rings around a prize or whatever it was, and then it was my turn.

The man tried to guess how old I was. In his defense (or is this really in my defense?), his guess was probably affected by his failure at guessing Shauna's age. "Are you in kindergarten?" "NO!"

Getting older didn't solve this problem for me. When I was a junior in high school, they got a new secretary at the orthodontist's office--a place I'd been going since I was 8 years old. When I showed up for my appointment, she smiled at me and asked politely if I was going to start high school in the fall, or if I was still in the seventh grade.

And it must be something about junior years, because my junior year at BYU, I went to buy something at the bookstore. Instead of asking me for my student ID, the older woman cashier asked me if I were visiting campus to decide if I wanted to come to school there someday.

Looking young also results in a lot of people calling me things like "honey," "sweetie," and "dear." People I have never met before like cashiers in stores. I don't mind it.... Actually, okay, I kind of like it. But it clearly labels me as young.

Last December, though, when I flew home for Christmas, something changed. All of a sudden, people were calling me "ma'am!" The woman at the check-in desk "How can I help you today, ma'am?" The guards in the security line. "Move along, ma'am." A random older gentleman who kindly picked up my driver's license when I managed to drop it and leave it behind-"Ma'am! Excuse me, ma'am! Is this yours?" It took me a minute to even realize he was talking to me.

I nearly collided with an older woman when I was trying to leave the security area, and she said, "Oh! Sorry, hun!" No big deal. I am used to this. But a second later she took another look and said, "Oh dear! I thought you were my niece, otherwise I wouldn't have called you hun!"

Yep. Not sure what changed, but all of a sudden, people were treating me like an adult. :) It felt good. Technically, I have been an adult for a while now, but all of a sudden this year that's seemed really real to me. Something about graduating from college made me feel really grown up. Now here I am, halfway through my master's program. In another year, I will be out in the real world! I am not quite sure how that is going to go. I always thought I would be a counselor... I don't even know quite what jobs are out there in the field of family life education. But I know that I was guided to this program, and so I'm sticking with it. I know something will open up when the time is right.

Still, this growing up business is a little intimidating. It's scary not knowing where I will be living in a year or what I will be doing. There's only so much I can do to plan ahead-a lot depends on variables out of my control. All I can do is move ahead and trust God to guide my steps. Somehow, everything is going to be okay.