"I Wish I Could Do This and That When I…"

While reflecting on Meg Jay's "Why 30 is Not the New 20," I thought about how tedious I want to grow up faster to gain more control of my life. This is because when I become an adult, there are moments I admire my childhood for being straightforward and having fewer problems to resolve on a day-to-day basis.

Are you able to observe the pattern?

I am engaging in a non-attainable cycle. When I was young, I could not grow faster. When I was an adult, I could not travel back in time. What if there's a magic power that satisfies my wishes?

This "what if" result is showcased in Rabindranath Tagore's short story, "When Wishes Come True."

There are two protagonists in the short story. A father named Subal was once spoiled by his parents and wants to travel back to his childhood to study more. Subal's son, Sushil, wants to control his own life by being an adult instead of listening to Subal all the time.

Both fortunate and unfortunate, a fairy fulfilled their wishes one night. Subal becomes a child once again, and Sushil is now a grown-up. It's a fortune because the world Tagore created allows this existence of supernatural power for the readers to observe the consequence of dreaming things that are not plausible to get in real life. It's a misfortune because both Subal and Sushil were not satisfied. Once their wishes are fulfilled, they want their ordinary "life" back because they realize there are too many restrictions at their new age.

The grown-up son no longer wants to play the tedious game because he figured it's too costly for his health. He no longer wants to eat the candy he craves because the flavor tastes different from his memories.

The "rejuvenated" father acted exactly like his son's previous behavior. He wanted to play. He wanted to eat out. He dreams of anything except to go to school and study. But he can't because his grown-up son disables him from doing so.

Both characters do things they once hated (or annoyed) when their roles were switched. Why is this that?

The problem is not age. The problem is we focus too much on things we can't do while disregarding things we can do only during that present.

When we were young, Sushil and I stayed attentive to affairs we were forced to do, like getting good grades, doing homework, and studying. However, we neglect the moments we have, such as playing with our friends, exploring the world, asking various "why" questions to fill up our curiosity bucket, and having adequate energy to do almost anything we can with limited liability (protected by our community and surrounded adults).

When we grow older, Subal and I continuously look back at our old days to make stressful comparisons, where our liability and responsibility grew tremendously. We thought about the need to pay bills, work for money, and to take care of the family. But we again neglect the moment we have today, like expanding our social network, having more patience to learn, and having more competency to do things we would not have been able to do in the past.

Although we don't have the fairy's supernatural power to fulfill unrealistic wishes, we do have the power to turn our true desires into reality. The power comes from the choice you make today. The key is to start on what you have and take action to gain what you don't have but want to have in the future.

References

1. Jay, Meg. "Why 30 is Not the New 20." TED, May. 2013, Link.
2. Tagore, Rabindranath. "When Wishes Come True." 2021.