Being a kid in Nigeria is fun, but it also has its own downsides and one of them is constant fights with older colleagues. Older children claim to be older, and younger children tell them, “Age doesn’t necessarily mean common sense.” Sense in this sense basically means wisdom.
“The greatest gift is growing up and getting old.”
There is a wide margin between aging and growth. While one is primarily concerned with metabolism and other biological processes and is almost inevitable, the other is a product of time and attention.
This is what I mean…
Aging is, except for complications, inevitable in all living beings, everything must age and the human being is not exempt. I won’t talk biologically here, so basically I want you to realize the inevitability of aging. You can’t decide when to be 180 cm tall or at what age you want to develop breasts. Aging can be fast, slow, or poor, but one thing that underscores all three is TIME. Therefore, it is safe to assume that growth occurs over time, which can be long or short. Aging is related to physical development. We all love to grow up, but as they say, “Time is a graceful mistress.”
Perhaps in the literal sense, growing and aging can be used interchangeably, but in the ‘real’ sense, they are separate as I said above.
Growth is a product of intentional effort. It’s hard to get old. It also deals with time, but in a weird way. I have seen children who have grown more than the elders. The relationship between time and growth is a matter of give and take. To grow, you need time, but time does not necessarily mean that you have grown. Growth is more spiritual, more a product of factors other than time.
I speak of growth as a product of one’s action. This does not mean that you will flip a switch in your head and grow up right away. it is a scenario. A result of your hard work, your choices over time. It is not a stage, it is a continuous process. It is an everyday thing.
One ‘crazy’ thing about growth is that it is a transition to another phase, not necessarily a better or more moral phase. A child who doesn’t smoke could one day become an addicted smoker, while the least productive student in the class could become the hardest worker in the job market. The other factor that determines this, aside from elections, is influence.
Experience is a common denominator for all types of growth. A drunk is experienced, all you need to do is ask and he will pour it out. Similarly, a motivational speaker also has experience. I am focusing on the growth of the positive aspects in this article. You may not decide which experience to get, but you decide which one you want to understand.
“I listen and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” -CONFUCIUS
This, although subjective, shows to a large extent that the power of understanding resides in your actions. Living with a drunk doesn’t mean you have to be a drunk, rather it is an opportunity to grow a shield against negative influence and peer pressure.
Growth, in this sense, encompasses understanding, wisdom, determination, control, and fulfillment. A 40-year-old man who has never seen a computer cannot claim to be more knowledgeable than a 5-year-old boy in the United States who has his own iPad. This shows that age does not determine growth.
In successive editions of the treatment of this subject, I will focus on the causes of growth.