36 - Growth (backdated to Friday, or perhaps earlier in the week)
I was tall, once. Most people grow in one direction - short to tall, small to large, young to old. I know at least one person whom I consider to be fairly young but whose appearance is that of an aged man, with all of the inconvenient physical weaknesses that go along with it. He likes himself that way; it matches how he perceives himself, and it changes how others treat him. When we are in a room together, the way people act towards him is much different from how they react to me, even knowing that I am much older. It's not always a positive thing for him, and in fact I would argue that it brings with it more disadvantages than advantages, but I am speaking from my own sensibilities when I say that. Similarly, he does not understand why someone would "play tricks on people," as he calls it, by maintaining the outward appearance of a youth.
In Cephiro, one's appearance is not entirely bound by circumstance or inherited predisposition, but that does not necessarily mean that altering it is any easy task for a human. I'll spare you the details, but it requires a certain level of commitment and either a lot of time or a lot of energy - not to mention the level of emotional maturity required to make that kind of commitment. In most places, this kind of wisdom roughly corresponds to physical age, so that is why in the common language used here and at home the word for growth is the same whether it is physical or emotional. In my natal language, this is not the case - often, for humans in Cephiro, emotional growth precludes physical growth and occasionally even results in halting or reversing it.
The last of these is less common; most people do not choose to appear as children for a variety of reasons. Many of them don't find it to be an ideal form of aesthetic expression, but those who do tolerate it take issue with the fact that it causes problems in establishing oneself as someone to be taken seriously and the inherent lack of physical strength makes it unfeasible for anyone who is not a magic user. Still others, like the person I mentioned in the first paragraph, see it as a dishonest practice. People make initial assumptions about a person based on their outward appearance, and when those assumptions turn out to be drastically wrong the person in question could be assumed to be lying about themselves. Yet, honesty with oneself and others is a major symbol of emotional growth, so it would be illogical to assume that someone who appeared to be young but was not would intend to be deceptive. From my point of view, the perceived honesty or lack thereof in a person's appearance is wholly dependent on what the viewer deems relevant. Things such as age and outward personality are discernible through means other than appearance, but there's a third, less quantifiable feature of people that is difficult to express in speech or writing. If someone is aware of that trait, I believe it is more honest to exaggerate and express it through one's appearance than to allow it to be overlooked entirely.
[ooc: Can I backdate this to Friday? orz. I swear I started writing it on Thursday but fjkaldgkdjfks schoooool. -_- jfdajf EDIT: WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME ABOUT ALL THESE MISSPELLINGS SOONER. /cue embarrassment ]
In Cephiro, one's appearance is not entirely bound by circumstance or inherited predisposition, but that does not necessarily mean that altering it is any easy task for a human. I'll spare you the details, but it requires a certain level of commitment and either a lot of time or a lot of energy - not to mention the level of emotional maturity required to make that kind of commitment. In most places, this kind of wisdom roughly corresponds to physical age, so that is why in the common language used here and at home the word for growth is the same whether it is physical or emotional. In my natal language, this is not the case - often, for humans in Cephiro, emotional growth precludes physical growth and occasionally even results in halting or reversing it.
The last of these is less common; most people do not choose to appear as children for a variety of reasons. Many of them don't find it to be an ideal form of aesthetic expression, but those who do tolerate it take issue with the fact that it causes problems in establishing oneself as someone to be taken seriously and the inherent lack of physical strength makes it unfeasible for anyone who is not a magic user. Still others, like the person I mentioned in the first paragraph, see it as a dishonest practice. People make initial assumptions about a person based on their outward appearance, and when those assumptions turn out to be drastically wrong the person in question could be assumed to be lying about themselves. Yet, honesty with oneself and others is a major symbol of emotional growth, so it would be illogical to assume that someone who appeared to be young but was not would intend to be deceptive. From my point of view, the perceived honesty or lack thereof in a person's appearance is wholly dependent on what the viewer deems relevant. Things such as age and outward personality are discernible through means other than appearance, but there's a third, less quantifiable feature of people that is difficult to express in speech or writing. If someone is aware of that trait, I believe it is more honest to exaggerate and express it through one's appearance than to allow it to be overlooked entirely.
[ooc: Can I backdate this to Friday? orz. I swear I started writing it on Thursday but fjkaldgkdjfks schoooool. -_- jfdajf EDIT: WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME ABOUT ALL THESE MISSPELLINGS SOONER. /cue embarrassment ]