When you are young, life is inherently frustrating. Everything is new but time drags on and there is so much to learn, so many people to imitate. People defer to you for your good looks and possible potential, but no one seriously believes that you are ready for independence. Your loved ones and the school system have an agenda for you. Everywhere you turn there are commitments and responsibilities to accept.
Fortunately, your imagination offers a respite from your current training and indoctrination. Unable to stop the social pressure to conform, you turn to flights of fancy in order to survive.
What you crave is genuine excitement. You read about travel, mythical beings and monsters to slay. You go to the movies and fantasize about acts of heroism. You see yourself as someone who is consequential. Meanwhile you wait. You wait for adult approval and trust. You wait for opportunities to prove your worth and talent.
As you grow up you reject the advice of others, but you desperately want external approval. Society drones on with one request after another. The judgments of your peers, however, are gospel truth.
But how long before you can join the others on the dance floor? When does life actually get real?
Probably when you first encounter death. The death of your neighbour or some prominent figure. The death of a pet or an immediate family member. In time calamities begin to enter your orbit and it dawns on you that you are not exempt from suffering after all.
As you mature, it becomes harder to deny personal flaws and you learn to blame others less and less. Broken relationships, negative experiences on the job, debt and disease knock on your door and their sound is deafening. A general malaise come over you. How could you have been so blind?
Finally you enter full adulthood. You no longer need to conjure interesting scenarios. Reality seems challenging enough. You take up your harness alongside the others. You have enough on your proverbial plate.
Like the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, you had wanted a comfortable life but it was not to be. You know too much. You’ve seen too much and now you have to do your part. Your turn has finally arrived and it’s time to make a contribution. Fear be damned!