I hated hearing this from my mom. I felt like it was an easy way out for something she said or for scolding me without having to fully explain it to me. Now more than ever, I have come to understand. Everything. All those times she said this, she was right.

I recently had dinner with my cousin and we were reminiscing about the times when all we really worried about were our grades, going to a friend’s house party, and how to balance homework and extra-curricular activities. Now that we’re both in our 30s, living away from home, and really #adulting in all aspects of life, we expressed how growing up has changed the world and made us appreciate all the very little things we took for granted–from the baon our mothers would pack oh-so-neatly from kinder all the way to grade school, to facing all the financial challenges headfirst just to provide us with the best education possible.

Marriage, independence, and facing the world as an adult at first, made me feel so small and incompetent. I saw evils I never encountered before, I felt emotions that I only saw in movies, and I experienced things that forced me to step out of my comfort zone. But after almost two years,  I learned so, so much and I am so grateful for all the challenges that came my way. I always let apprehension get the better of me, when in fact, I should embrace and trust the process! I get it now. Now, I know. Now, I understand. Now, I appreciate everything even more.

And I know that one day I will say this to my kids. They won’t understand. They will be just as exasperated as I was. Then years later, they will also come to terms with the fact that really, you’ll only truly understand when you get there.