Why I think Peter Pan is right
Growing up is lame
When I was 4 years old, my life was good and happy. We used to travel, and we laughed and had fun a lot. My mama got me everything I wanted, a Hotel Transylvania birthday cake, with the little monster candle on top, and then another one with dinosaurs on top because I couldn’t decide, so she got me both. My mama always got me everything.
When I turned 6, Covid came and I could not go to Kindergarten, where I will actually have friends my age, not visiting cousins or meeting my older relatives.
When I turned 9, suddenly the (what my mama calls) growing pains started, and they become worse when I am stressed or anxious. It is almost always really hard to become calm again. I have a big rash on my hands that has not gotten better for 4 years now, and I always stink the mattress with my sweat.
Yesterday, when my grandparents and us were eating at a place in a poor neighbourhood, the wind suddenly blew so hard and some of the roof pieces flew off from the houses built by the squatters next to the place we were eating at. It looked like a tornado happening right in front of my eyes. We were so scared. I told my mama as we were leaving that I thought a tornado was coming and that it was going to kill me. She said that the chances of me dying in a tornado is very small because I am small, all I had to do if a tornado did come is to hide low.
I told her I am now scared of growing tall and big and wanted to stay short and small like her.
This is why I don’t feel like growing up! More bad things happen when you grow bigger and it becomes less safer when you are tall and big!
Peter Pan is right about not wanting to grow up.
I promise there are lots of good things about getting big and tall too. Like being able to see over people’s heads at a concert, or to reach books on a high shelf. This is a lovely piece of writing, Miya. I love knowing what’s happening inside people’s heads and you describe it beautifully.