Growing Up

I think for a long time, when you're little, the idea of growing up really just doesn't make much sense. Growing up is confined to the idea of losing your baby teeth and just getting outright bigger. What you don't realize is that as you grow up something dies in you. It so often happens, and too often people give in to that. What you don't realize is that all the best things will happen to you when you were younger. You'll forget that and be so lost to the world that you won't stop to have any fun.

There was Rheka (or Reyhka even?) who, when I was a first grader at the Incarnate Word Academy, would taunt me for not having lost any of my baby teeth yet. She always threatened to punch them out for me. I felt like I was missing out, and I wanted to grow up so badly and lose those teeth. She was an Indian girl, which I suppose is significant because there were so few non-white kids in my school. And although we may not have been the best of friends, anytime you're thrust into a new situation you seek out those that may be somewhat like yourself. For all intensive purposes, I was like her in many ways, except for the fact that I was falling desperately behind in the race to grow up. She would ask me everyday at recess if I had lost any teeth yet. And when I would give her my reply to indicate the negative, she would threaten to punch them out for me. I guess it's nice to have someone who is willing to put in that special extra effort to help you along the way. I wanted to lose those teeth so badly, but it just wasn't happening. Not until the next year would I start losing my baby teeth. I have to admit that I was excited about it. I just didn't realize it would hurt so bad. Losing a tooth is never any fun.

Coincidentally, it would turn out that the two front baby teeth in the lower part of my mouth would hang around for much longer than expected. I really don't think there's a term for that, my dentist just said that I had congenitally missing teeth. Now there's an awkward thought, because if I have congenitally missing teeth, isn't it remotely possible that I had congenitally missing other body parts as well? It's a severely discomforting thought indeed. I was eighteen, and I was guilty of the crime of hanging on to those last two baby teeth. Maybe I was able to conspire, out of spite for those like Rheka, to not let those adult teeth grow in. Those teeth would have to be knocked out for me, and I now have a dental bridge in place of those adult teeth that would never grow in.

If anything, I really do just ape the motions of a real, mature, adult male.