The Fairy Tale

I am nineteen years old. Often, I still feel like I'm a little kid, dreaming about "when I grow up."

When you get to college it is clear that everyone is holding on to their childhood. Instead of wanting to feel grown up, college kids try to increasingly embrace all things childlike. For instance, there are disney princesses everywhere in the dorms and it is not uncommon to find a dozen girls watching an old disney movie in the lounge.


I am no different. I have a new found passion for stickers. Instead of real food I prefer to eat cereal out of those innovative bowls that have built-in straws for slurping leftover milk. I color my notes during class because I have deep appreciation for crayons. I miss swings and merry-go-rounds. Deep down inside, I still want my prince to come and rescue me from the evil dragon.

People assume that growing up means letting go of childhood dreams and facing reality. Does the hope of fairy tales end when you get to college? After you spend five years in college and realize you don't want to do anything coinciding with your major? When you have not come close to finding that prince, let alone being rescued by him? When you get a job just to pay the rent? When you find a coffee stain unexpectedly on your favorite sweater right before seeing your ex-boyfriend from high school happily married with 2.5 kids?


I believe college students have a secret fear deep inside that growing up means nothing but disappointment, boredom, and the end of the hope of a long awaited fairy tale. Therefore, they try to prolong the process by clenching on to disney princesses and swing sets.


The truth in growing up is realizing that the perfect fairy tale is not perfect as we define perfection. My favorite stories are the ones that are messy. They are full of intense peril, mindless stupidity, and the ex-boyfriend happily married with 2.5 kids. Is accepting those things giving up? By no means! Accepting those things opens up the opportunity for us to truly live in God's story, not some made up human one.


In those fairy tales we dream about in our childhood, the end is always predictable. The story ends with living happily ever after. The characters are fulfilled and the purpose, their own happiness, has reached the ultimate shining fruition. There is no end after that. The end is happiness, and that is...well...the end.


It might be a hard lesson to learn, but our happiness is not the purpose of this story. This fact actually releases all the pressure off growing up, meeting Mr. Right, working at a dream job, and having those 2.5 beautiful kids. Oh these are wonderful things, don't get me wrong. But they are not IT. They are not the end. I find it heartbreaking when people think that these goals are the end, only to be disappointed at their own discontent after marrying, working, or raising their kids.


Truth be told, I don't care if I "grow up." I will probably love stickers and cereal forever. I do care, however, that I am spiritually mature. The spiritually mature accepts that their purpose is to bring God's glory. The end lays in the perfect author's hands. Our story is not a fairy tale, but REALITY. We are characters in the grandest, most romantic, and most eloquent story of all- the story of mankind.