Letters: Growing Older or Growing Up

Dear friend,

Last night, while reading an article by John Obidi, someone I admire for his cognitive prowess, I saw something he wrote about growth. 

I had to pause and briefly contemplate it. After I finished reading about six of his articles, I began to reflect on that, and it dawned on me that it was very important to me. Why? It's a few days to my birthday.

“Am I growing older or am I just growing up?”

In less than 2 weeks, I'd clock 20, and I haven't thought to ask myself this question before.

Apparently, to the crowd, I am growing older. More beards, more ‘responsibilities’, and aging is slowly hitting me, at a steady pace. My biological patterns are slowly adapting to the age I am clocking.

But then, am I just growing older, biologically, or am I also growing up at the same time? 

Is there any update on my mental patterns, my spiritual self (I don't mean religion), and my general outlook on life?

Biological sciences enable me to grow up with the way my brain is structured, an example being the PFC; the Prefrontal Cortex, the most outward part of the brain that is found at the part of the head called your forehead. 

Tap your forehead; that is where your PFC is located, and it is the last part of the brain to develop. Around the age of 21. The PFC is concerned with complex decision-making. Now you see why you are not allowed to hold certain political offices until you are 21. Go back to your biology…

While I asked myself that question, I got an answer. But I also want to ask you that question.

Are you just growing older, or are you also growing up?

What mental and psychological changes have you seen alongside your physical changes?

Did you just grow in height and size, or did you grow in wisdom too?

While you think about this, even if your next birthday is still far away, I am rooting for you, and I trust you are rooting for me too.

Till I write next, Goodbye!