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Its weird how when we're young we look at adults as if they have changed and are completely different.  We grow up expecting that there will be some sort of dramatic transformation beyond the obvious.  We think that suddenly we will be adults and cease to be children, but the reality is that a lot less change actually happens. We see that we get taller or fatter, our hair grows, eventually turns gray and or falls out.  We gain and then eventually lose our flexibility, mobility, and strength.  We can control, to some degree, especially if we are vigilant, our health and appearance, our physical abilities and skills.  We can also choose what we learn or believe. We are still ourselves and only choose the degree of child within us to expose.

We might watch television or movies as an escape.  We realize that it is not an accurate portrayal of life, yet it is a sugary sweet lie that is dripping into our minds.  You cannot learn reality from those video and cinema screens. Distinguishing truth from falsity requires experience for comparison.  Experiencing the world third or fourth hand is no better than shadows on a cave wall. Do we think that there is some sort of instant metamorphosis when we reach a certain age, because fictional characters have so completely left behind their childhood?  Do we expect a stereotypical or cliche type when we recognize a situation that a certain sort of character ought to be present?

Television and movie actors are made to look the part. While your real-life friend down the block actually is sixteen, the character of the sixteen year old on television or in that cool movie is played by a twenty-two year old.  College or High school is not so simplistic. There is no plan to burst a house with popcorn, and your principal is unlikely to make a home visit because you called-in sick.  You are watching a storyteller's work made flesh, using the tools at hand, to sketch out the important parts needed to tell the tale.  Technical details like physics can be spoofed on screen, laws can be broken without a police chase, the most popular boy is always the quarterback on the football team and the prom king with the captain of the cheerleaders as queen, everyone lives happily ever after, the bad guy always gets caught/punished, and only red-shirted landing party members fail to survive the encounter with the alien(s).

How much time is spent during a television program or movie when nothing happens?  Do we see the entire seven hours of the cat or dog roaming around a darkened house while the family sleeps?  This is reality, there are parts of life when nothing exciting occurs.  Star ship captains have no need for a bathroom, don't wash dishes or clothes, and aren't shown reading that book for the entire three hours or more that it took to actually read it.  We accept these inaccuracies because we assume that they happen, that it took time.  We must be careful not to truly believe in them as reality.  The subtle things that we learn first hand are much more difficult to notice, especially without any of that needed experience.

Accomplishments take effort, time, and life is not one big circus sideshow every five minutes except for circus sideshow performers.  You cannot wait around doing nothing and still have things happen: life is not controlled by a script. The cat still poops in the litter box, the poop still reeks, and you will have to clean the litter box or you may find a disobedient cat making a mess of your home.  It is conveniently handled in a movie or TV show, but real life is lived. You can only grow with experience.  You can survive, your future will not happen without you.