Tragedy.

My last couple of posts have been very much stream of conscience type posts. No in-depth editing or pretty photos (no photos at all, really). It’s the idea of maybe… getting something off my chest while simultaneously making a record of it. I didn't even really finish my last post. But it seems particularly relevant to what is on my mind right now. 

Being an adult is all the rage these days. You see all sorts of posts and articles and quizzes about "adulting." It's a weird thing, being a grown-up. I feel like it just sort of happens one day, with all these milestones in between that make it seem more real.

One of these milestones that has been on my mind lately is tragedy. When you're little, and even as a young adult, you feel invincible. Of course you suffer from crippling self-confidence and poor decision making skills, but overall I think there is a sense of freedom and invincibility that you can't appreciate until it is less present. When you're young true tragedy seems so distant and irrelevant. But as you get older, it seems everywhere. All around you. In the people you love the most, and even people you only barely know.

It might be the prevalence of social media. I'm not sure. But life seems to change quicker and quicker and it only takes an unsuspecting moment for everything to crumble away. It reminds me that every day, every moment, is a gift.

It sounds corny. But for once I'm not being sarcastic or hyperbolic. It wrenches my heart to see tragedy in the lives of so many people I know. I used to think it was so dramatic to hear "old" people say, "hold your loved ones close, you never know what might happen."

But maybe that is what growing up actually is. Becoming the people we always rolled our eyes at, and realizing they were right all along. And realizing that there is only so much that we can barely begin to understand in this big-wide-(sometimes tragic and sometimes beautiful)-world.