When I Grow Up: Game of Thrones Edition

Remember when you were younger and you looked up to grown-ups? And you wished you could be cool like them? They were so…grown up, whatever that means. Then you actually ‘grow up’ and realize it’s all a sham. They were just faking it. And you know this because, well…you’re just faking it. And so you, along with society, pop culture and Miley Cyrus deconstruct our forefathers’ confidence. Deconstruct the life they had, the mirage of ideals they’d thought necessary, deconstruct their ‘cool’ factor. We live, after all, is the Post Modern era.  “There’s no such thing as growing up,” and “Our parents only thought they knew.” You almost laugh at how you once admired that elusive grown-up status you thought you’d one day, seamlessly and unquestionably inherit.  It’s a time gone….gone with the wind.

But every once in a while, you get a glimpse. A glimpse of a real grown-up (again, whatever that means?). And it all comes back. Not because they fit a certain description. In fact it’s hard, elusive even, to pin-point exactly what it is, this admirable I-want-to-be-exactly-like-you-when-I-grow-up quality. But I know I’ve seen it. In real life and on HBO…

When Game of Thrones Characters Grow up…

~When they Ignore Convention

~When they break the rules

~When they have blinding confidence and no one understands why 

~But it pays off later…

~When people tell them their goals are unattainable. But they forge on anyways…

~When they’re positive even though it’s hard                      

~When they make bad plans but no one has a better idea

~When they embrace their dark side (Sansa)

~When they articulate exactly how they feel

~When they’re not afraid of being a novice… 

~When they choose love over orders                                       

~When they’re dramatic and pensive….but it’s actually completely necessary

~When they smooth awkward situations over

~When they inhabit wolves. Just so grown-up… 

~When they take control              

~When they don’t sugar-coat the truth

~When they’re calm under pressure / death row

~When they stay even though it’s scary

~When they fight for others

Who knows the true definition of ‘grown-up’. Maybe it’s when you do your own income taxes or when you own your own home (I see a few nods in the audience). Maybe it’s measured by your bank account, your skills, your success, your experiences, the number of boxes you’ve managed to check off, the number of milestones you’ve passed.  Maybe being a grown-up is just being a better version of yourself. A braver version, or someone completely different, whatever life requires of you…