crazy-pages:The Most Difficult Part Of Growing UpThe most difficult part of growing up is something…
Sunday, November 24th, 2019The Most Difficult Part Of Growing Up
The most difficult part of growing up is something a lot of adults never do.
When we’re young, we often hurt the people around us because we don’t know any better. Part of childhood is learning that our actions affect others and being taught how to do right by others. But when children hurt others in ignorance, it’s not their fault because it’s inevitable and it’s the responsibly of adults to teach them to do better.
But there’s the thing. There’s a lesson in the way we accidentally hurt others as children, beyond the specifics of “use your words”, “when someone else is hurting, listen to them rather than making it about you”, “don’t call someone that, it’s cruel”. The lesson is that ignorance hurts. Not knowing any better results in us hurting other people.
And that may be unintentional, but by the time we are adults we should all know that it is inevitable. Which is why as adults we need to let go of the excuse “I didn’t know”. Because yeah sure maybe you didn’t know. But you’re an adult. You’ve learned the hard way that not knowing gets people hurt. So why didn’t you know? Could you have known better if you’d done your research, paid better attention?
When one is a child, innocence in wrongdoing is judged by whether or not you knew better. But among adults? Innocence is properly judged not by whether or not you knew better, but by whether or not you could have known better. Because as adults we should all know the damage our own ignorances can do.
This is the hardest lesson of growing up. Learning that innocence in ignorance doesn’t make you less responsible for the harm you do. That it is your responsibility to fix the “I didn’t know better” gaps in your understanding of the world before they hurt others, not after.
Reposted from https://lies.tumblr.com/post/189264503401.
