When We Grow Up

When We Grow Up

“They say, when you grow up, you can do what your heart desires,”

They speak as if it’s a dream that easily transpires.

But the truth, a quiet song full of ache,

Is that growing up means giving more than you take.

Dreams once scribbled in diary’s fold,

Are now buried, silenced, never told.

Under the weight of all we must do,

Even desires feel borrowed, not true.

Someone said freedom comes with age,

But for most, dreams are traded for wage.

The heart wants to scream, to be alive—

But the world demands we quietly survive.

What we once imagined as kids so free,

Becomes a story told wistfully.

To follow your heart? Only a few can say,

They lived their life their own way.