When I Grow Up...
I spent last weekend at Guide camp with fifteen nine-to-twelve-year-olds. Some of them were from another Guide unit than the one I volunteer with, and so we'd been getting to know each other. One of them confided that she really loved musicals, and that lead into a discussion of particular songs. She'd been singing "When I Grow Up" from Matilda with her choir.
"When I grow up, I will be brave enough to fight the monsters that you have to fight each night beneath the bed when you're grown up," I sang at her.
"Grownups know that there aren't really any monsters," she said.
We thought about that for a moment.
"I think," I told her, "we just get different monsters. Grownups get scared, too. We just have different fears."
"Like what?" she asked.
"Well, I'm scared that something will happen and I won't be able to keep you safe. Stuff like that."
On the bus on the way home, on Sunday afternoon, I pulled out my phone to tweet about the fantastic weekend I'd had, and read the news about Pulse.
There, I thought. That's my monster under the bed.
Click to view"When I grow up, I will be brave enough to fight the monsters that you have to fight each night beneath the bed when you're grown up," I sang at her.
"Grownups know that there aren't really any monsters," she said.
We thought about that for a moment.
"I think," I told her, "we just get different monsters. Grownups get scared, too. We just have different fears."
"Like what?" she asked.
"Well, I'm scared that something will happen and I won't be able to keep you safe. Stuff like that."
On the bus on the way home, on Sunday afternoon, I pulled out my phone to tweet about the fantastic weekend I'd had, and read the news about Pulse.
There, I thought. That's my monster under the bed.