Lujain+A's+OpEd+Article

**//“I Don’t Want To Grow Up" //**  media type="file" key="lujaina-muckraker-2011.mp3" align="center"

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I want to stay in Neverland. The place where I can free my mind; the place where I can run rampant; the place where I can be a kid; the place where I can imagine without having boundaries entrap me; the place where I can create; the place where I can dream; the place where I can remain pure in a world that is tainted. I am dreadfully scared to leave this place where I feel safe and shielded from the mad world. But despite my desire to remain in Neverland, I feel that my time there is running out. =====

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“If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!" Peter Pan yelled at the top of his lungs. Peter would be looking down at me from Neverland in utter shame. I am losing my dignity to climb the trees I used to climb. My imagination that used to be infinite, is day by day, withering away. I can feel the pixie dust slowly fading off me like evanescent vapor as I have lost inexorable faith in the things I used to have faith in. It has hit me that I am no longer a child anymore. But I don’t want this to mean that I lose the capacity to remain innocent, inspired and creative. I don’t want to lead a life where I only have time to worry about paying taxes, doing laundry, getting to work on time, and buying groceries. I don’t want to become trapped in a lifestyle where every day is a constant rush, as all youthful liveliness and vigor bubbles away from my body. =====

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I remember playing “house” as a young child, fantasizing about the days when I would be a grown adult. Now, I look back wondering why I was so eager to “be big.” I think children nowadays are rushed, even pressured, into growing up. Many are off on cell phones, while they should be carelessly lollygagging off into a field of flowers. Some are taunted for still playing with “baby toys.” Some feel pressured to wear clothes that appear “older.” Instead of believing in “cooties”, girls and boys feel compelled to “date” each other at young ages. Where has childhood gone? Why are kids struggling to become mature as they leave Neverland in such a rush? I wish that when I was a child, I would have embraced my natural, childlike abilities to decipher animals out of the shapeless clouds, to run around without getting tired, to color countless books with crayons, to talk to imaginary friends, and to invent stories with dolls. =====

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As I can sadly feel the last of my high school years beginning to whirl past me, I can no longer deny the fact that I will soon be venturing off into the adult world. The unknown world that is still strange and foreign to me. As I take each step, closer and closer, I know I cannot fly off towards “the second star to the right, and straight on till’ morning.” I know I cannot leave all my troubles behind with just a pinch of sparkling fairy dust. I know that I cannot escape growing up. I know that I eventually have to face my fears of adulthood. But no matter what, there always will be a part of me that still holds on to Neverland, the very symbol of my youth. There always will. =====