There is this ineffable feeling that I get when I listen to songs from my childhood. It could be an all-time favorite from some generation or just a filler song in a below average album of an unheard band. I get a tingly sensation and then goose bumps. My eyes light up and I automatically start humming to its beat. I couldn’t be the only one, could I?

For those who agree with me, you would also agree to a sequel of this feel. You are an insecure adult who doesn’t even have the guts to admit that the song you like so much is sung by a boy band, or a teenage kid. It takes you aback a little but you muscle this feeling with your logic of how you are no longer a reckless kid but a responsible adult and that you are not allowed to go nuts for a song from the past.

People generally come across this similar feeling when they see an old friend who they had countless sleepovers with or find an old photograph of a funky dance they did in an annual school function. I have, in countless occasions, made sure that no one finds out that I went crazy for Back Street Boys and that I still shed a tear when Jack drowns in the movie Titanic.

I always felt being an adult meant being strong in the way you express your feelings and blatantly disregard your inner self-desires. 

 So why stop being yourself? Why put so much pressure on yourself to become an adult that you forget to feel how it’s like to actually grow up? Why shun yourself from feelings that make you vulnerable, emotional and real? Is it really worth it? None knows how to be an adult because it is always everyone’s first time. The art of ‘adulting’ is not same for everyone. No one grows up to be the same kind of a person and there is fairly good reason behind it. They dance to their favorite beat when it’s played on the radio, they sing along in their croaked voice when their song is played and they live like they want to and not like they should.

So how about being you for a while? 

Sushan is a micro-biologist at Unilever Quality Alliance

 
• adulting
 
• sushan dhakal