And I’m not counting things like what you do or get when you grow up like having a bank account or getting a real job. Nor am I accepting the whole ‘I just grew up’.
My sign of my childhood ending or accepting that it has ended is when all of the nu-metal bands I was introduced to and listened to a lot of us just ended up fractured. They all didn’t endure the passage of time and it was really just a matter of you had to be there to know how popular they were or the scene was.
The bands I used to have listened to have gone the way of Classic Rock on the radio. Spammed tracks from some bands because that’s all the DJ knows or that’s all they’re allowed to play.
For me, it was being able to recognize that my parents were well-meaning but imperfect people and not getting angry about it. There was the normal childhood period when I looked up to them and just assumed they could do no wrong, then the reactionary teenage anger phase of, “Fuck you, old man! You don’t know me!”
It wasn’t until around 26 or so that I had calmed down enough to say/feel without malice , “I am going to live my life the way I want to live my life, you may not understand or agree with some of my decisions, and that’s OK. I’m not required to justify or explain them to you.”