July 30, 2025 • 15 mins
Some of us had to grow up too fast, and there are pros and cons to this.
In this episode, I share what that feels like through living it, how it still lingers in adulthood, and why it’s okay to wish things were different while learning how to finally slow down and breathe again.
In this episode, I share what that feels like through living it, how it still lingers in adulthood, and why it’s okay to wish things were different while learning how to finally slow down and breathe again.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That was a deep breath.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Let's take a deep breath together, ready.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All right? That feels good.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome back everyone, Thank you so much for joining another
episode of the Still Standing Strong Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Did I think we'd get this far? Yeah? I did.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's only episode two, but we did it. Thank you
for tuning in, for giving me a chance to enter
your waves and hopefully build a community of support, acknowledgement, positivity, optimism,
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I decided that what we're going to.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Do initially in this first season of this podcast, it's
just introduced different topics, talk about them generically, generally, give
you my experience with them, and then I'm just going
to talk off the cuff and then we can grab
(01:21):
latch onto some of those different pieces within those conversations
that we want to delve into deeper. So with that
being said, today we're going to talk about something we
all experience but in very very different ways, childhood.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Being a kid.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And here's my thought provoking question for everyone today. Do
you ever look back on your childhood and realize you
were carrying adult sized problems in a kid sized body.
What do you think about those apples? Because as I've
(02:06):
gotten older, that's what I've realized, so this episode's for
the ones who had to grow up too fast, are
still learning how to breathe again and are probably missing
some or living out some pieces of their childhood that
(02:27):
they never had an opportunity to properly enjoy. For me,
as I mentioned in the prior episode, I had my
mom diagnosed with cancer at thirteen. When I was thirteen
years old. My brother was eleven, and that was a
(02:49):
tough pill to swallow at a young age. What do
you do with that information? I really wasn't sure. I
don't know that I lived my life any different. I
know that I definitively tried to be there for my
(03:10):
mother a little bit more. I told her I loved
her as much as I could.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
But you know, I.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Tried to live my kid life. But how can you
knowing that your mother is dying, Right, It's always in
the back of your mind, even when you're young. And
when I was thirteen, we're hitting puberty, we're experiencing life
or going through all these different changes ourselves. What I
(03:42):
do remember is that I was strong. I inherently and
instinctively knew that I had to be strong.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I don't remember ever having a moment.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Where I curled up and just reveled in it, let
it overtake me. I can honestly say it never stopped
me from doing what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
But how do I know that?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
You know, I liked to play video games when I
was young, hang out with my friends, be outside, be inside,
all kinds of things. But life is more than just
what you're doing. It's also what you're thinking, you're feeling,
(04:27):
you're experiencing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And for me.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Thinking back now, with her going through what she did,
and you know my brother had some things going on
to I did too, There's just there's a lot of
things that I just never.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Experienced. No, we didn't really travel a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I don't think that had anything to do with well,
it did with what she was going through, but that
traveling is something that I do all the time now
try to didn't do a whole lot of that growing up.
But emotionally psychologically, I know that there are and were
(05:13):
things that I just didn't I grew up too fast
with and I deal with those today. But the way
that I look at nearly everything in life, within reason,
there's a good side to it. What did all of
that do for me, well, I am stronger now, I'm
(05:39):
mentally stronger. I feel like I got a head start
on my adult life. Of course it ate away some childhood,
but I understand and understood things life quicker than folks
around me. There's a positive. There's a positive in everything again,
(06:04):
as you look through it, look at it from a
different lens. You just have to look hard enough. But
it was still tough, and I remember thinking I had
to keep it together for everyone else, even when I
might have been falling apart on the inside and I
(06:27):
didn't recognize it. And to this day, and you might
be saying this to yourself out loud, psychoanalyzing me, but
I feel like I have to fix everything today. Always
(06:48):
a problem, there's a solution for it in my mind,
and I'm going to either be that solution or help
find that solution.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Time is a solution for a lot of things, and
for some reason, I try to push those up even
though I have no control of time.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
None of us do.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Time is an inevitability. Relaxing is difficult for me. Friendships
are great, have a lot of those, but it's always
difficult when folks go on to live their lives, and
that doesn't include you. That might be a part of it,
but that's also life. We all go through different variations
(07:28):
of that. And I also carry this guilt of feeling
like I'm not doing enough as an adult. If I
just sit down and don't do anything, what am I accomplishing?
What am I progressing? Not a whole lot? It's tough.
(07:50):
It's tough when you feel like you're doing everything that
you can but things aren't moving forward right. But here's
what I want everyone out there to remember what I
have to and choose to constantly remind myself we're doing
the best that we can, right. I don't remember when
(08:14):
the stork dropped me off at my parents' house. I
don't remember being given an instruction manual. Maybe I was,
I'd probably lost it like everything else. But we're all
just learning how to do these things for the first time, right,
with some guidance and instruction from those around us who've
(08:36):
done it before. I was going to say a time
or two, but I don't think that anyone's done that.
Maybe cats do nine lives, but it's okay if we
make mistakes. It's okay if we feel like we're not
doing enough. It's okay if you relax once in a while,
(08:57):
don't do anything once in a while, lets your body
recover from all that it's been through. So let's talk
about and we'll go way deeper on all of those things.
I'm just spewing off word soup. But let's talk about
(09:18):
some positivity. I want to end every episode with some positivity,
some optimism, anything that reminds us that it's going to
be okay. Let's call it the quiet strength. When something
happens that's negative, that's tough to go through. What happens,
what happens to you hopefully learn from it, right Hopefully
(09:43):
if you go through that same thing, scenario, situation again,
well you have a better idea of how to handle it.
Right there, you go, there's one. Each time you experience
one thing, if you deal with it again, you'll have
a better idea of how to solution for and of
how to deal with it out of cope.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
That's resilience.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And you know, there's so many wonderful quotes about getting
knocked down and getting right back up, But that's resilience baby,
right there. Don't forget that. Don't forget that, and then
you gain something called empathy for going through a struggle,
(10:30):
having a lot in your mind, going through a lot
in your life helps you. Helps us see things, experience things,
feel things from other people's perspectives, which is important. And
it also gives you this determination to create develop a
different future for yourself, for your loved ones, your friends,
(10:53):
the children, your dogs, your cats, geckos. Maybe we know
from experience whether we want to experience something again or not.
We are in control of that for the most part.
And here's something to remember. It's okay to be proud
(11:19):
of how strong that you had to be and that
you are right now and still wish that you didn't
have to be. That's okay. This is another one of
those situations in scenarios that you can learn from. When
you're in this constant fight or flight mode, you fly
(11:41):
through everything. Learn to slow down. Life itself is not forever.
Don't forget that. Give yourself permission to laugh, play, rest
enjoy now that's important. That's also progression. That's learning from
(12:07):
your past mistakes of not creating the space for that.
And the cool part about becoming an adult is you
get to reparent yourself. And we'll talk more about parenting,
childhood parenting during the childhood more in another.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Episode, but.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
On a grand scale from a thirty thousand foot airplane
or helicopter. You get to reparent yourself when you become
an adult. What what do you need? Do you need
to travel more? That's what I'm doing. Do you need
to experience more people, more food? That's what I'm doing.
(12:56):
Do you need more love? Do you need more self sufficiency?
Do you need someone to tell you that you're proud
of you? Of course someone else can do that for you,
but you can do that for you too, And don't
forget that we all require ourselves to be proud of
(13:18):
ourselves to continue moving forward in a positive way. So now,
with all of that being said, in this first season,
we're just gonna do some quick episodes, just introducing different topics,
seeing what hits, what feels right. Let's reflect on what
(13:43):
we talked about today. Growing up too fast at the time,
doesn't feel like you're growing up too fast. I feel
like as a kid, it just feels like forever all
the time, especially when you're in school. A clock never
strikes five o'clock fast enough or whatever it is. What
to for high schoolers? I don't know, but if you
(14:06):
had to grow up too fast, give yourself some permission
to vent and relax now and you're not broken. You're
like a lot of people out there, your proof that
survival can turn into strength and strength can turn into healing.
Here's a question I'd love to see discussion over. What's
(14:30):
one thing that you wish that you could go back
and tell your younger self.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
At any age.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
If we had a time traveling machine and you could
go back and tell your younger self something, what would
it be. Let me know, share your thoughts with me.
You can even send me an email. We have one
of those now. I'm in the process of creating some
social media for interactions and I would love to engage
(15:02):
with everyone out there. But if you want to send
me an email for now, can send it to still
standingstrongpodcast at gmail dot com and I will make sure
I get to as many of them as I can.
But thank you so much for joining me today or tonight,
whatever time it is that you're enjoying or listening to
(15:25):
this podcast, and I look forward to doing this again,
and remember we are still Standing Strong.
That was a deep breath.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Let's take a deep breath together, ready.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All right? That feels good.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome back everyone, Thank you so much for joining another
episode of the Still Standing Strong Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Did I think we'd get this far? Yeah? I did.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's only episode two, but we did it. Thank you
for tuning in, for giving me a chance to enter
your waves and hopefully build a community of support, acknowledgement, positivity, optimism,
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I decided that what we're going to.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Do initially in this first season of this podcast, it's
just introduced different topics, talk about them generically, generally, give
you my experience with them, and then I'm just going
to talk off the cuff and then we can grab
(01:21):
latch onto some of those different pieces within those conversations
that we want to delve into deeper. So with that
being said, today we're going to talk about something we
all experience but in very very different ways, childhood.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Being a kid.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And here's my thought provoking question for everyone today. Do
you ever look back on your childhood and realize you
were carrying adult sized problems in a kid sized body.
What do you think about those apples? Because as I've
(02:06):
gotten older, that's what I've realized, so this episode's for
the ones who had to grow up too fast, are
still learning how to breathe again and are probably missing
some or living out some pieces of their childhood that
(02:27):
they never had an opportunity to properly enjoy. For me,
as I mentioned in the prior episode, I had my
mom diagnosed with cancer at thirteen. When I was thirteen
years old. My brother was eleven, and that was a
(02:49):
tough pill to swallow at a young age. What do
you do with that information? I really wasn't sure. I
don't know that I lived my life any different. I
know that I definitively tried to be there for my
(03:10):
mother a little bit more. I told her I loved
her as much as I could.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
But you know, I.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Tried to live my kid life. But how can you
knowing that your mother is dying, Right, It's always in
the back of your mind, even when you're young. And
when I was thirteen, we're hitting puberty, we're experiencing life
or going through all these different changes ourselves. What I
(03:42):
do remember is that I was strong. I inherently and
instinctively knew that I had to be strong.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I don't remember ever having a moment.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Where I curled up and just reveled in it, let
it overtake me. I can honestly say it never stopped
me from doing what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
But how do I know that?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
You know, I liked to play video games when I
was young, hang out with my friends, be outside, be inside,
all kinds of things. But life is more than just
what you're doing. It's also what you're thinking, you're feeling,
(04:27):
you're experiencing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And for me.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Thinking back now, with her going through what she did,
and you know my brother had some things going on
to I did too, There's just there's a lot of
things that I just never.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Experienced. No, we didn't really travel a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I don't think that had anything to do with well,
it did with what she was going through, but that
traveling is something that I do all the time now
try to didn't do a whole lot of that growing up.
But emotionally psychologically, I know that there are and were
(05:13):
things that I just didn't I grew up too fast
with and I deal with those today. But the way
that I look at nearly everything in life, within reason,
there's a good side to it. What did all of
that do for me, well, I am stronger now, I'm
(05:39):
mentally stronger. I feel like I got a head start
on my adult life. Of course it ate away some childhood,
but I understand and understood things life quicker than folks
around me. There's a positive. There's a positive in everything again,
(06:04):
as you look through it, look at it from a
different lens. You just have to look hard enough. But
it was still tough, and I remember thinking I had
to keep it together for everyone else, even when I
might have been falling apart on the inside and I
(06:27):
didn't recognize it. And to this day, and you might
be saying this to yourself out loud, psychoanalyzing me, but
I feel like I have to fix everything today. Always
(06:48):
a problem, there's a solution for it in my mind,
and I'm going to either be that solution or help
find that solution.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Time is a solution for a lot of things, and
for some reason, I try to push those up even
though I have no control of time.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
None of us do.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Time is an inevitability. Relaxing is difficult for me. Friendships
are great, have a lot of those, but it's always
difficult when folks go on to live their lives, and
that doesn't include you. That might be a part of it,
but that's also life. We all go through different variations
(07:28):
of that. And I also carry this guilt of feeling
like I'm not doing enough as an adult. If I
just sit down and don't do anything, what am I accomplishing?
What am I progressing? Not a whole lot? It's tough.
(07:50):
It's tough when you feel like you're doing everything that
you can but things aren't moving forward right. But here's
what I want everyone out there to remember what I
have to and choose to constantly remind myself we're doing
the best that we can, right. I don't remember when
(08:14):
the stork dropped me off at my parents' house. I
don't remember being given an instruction manual. Maybe I was,
I'd probably lost it like everything else. But we're all
just learning how to do these things for the first time, right,
with some guidance and instruction from those around us who've
(08:36):
done it before. I was going to say a time
or two, but I don't think that anyone's done that.
Maybe cats do nine lives, but it's okay if we
make mistakes. It's okay if we feel like we're not
doing enough. It's okay if you relax once in a while,
(08:57):
don't do anything once in a while, lets your body
recover from all that it's been through. So let's talk
about and we'll go way deeper on all of those things.
I'm just spewing off word soup. But let's talk about
(09:18):
some positivity. I want to end every episode with some positivity,
some optimism, anything that reminds us that it's going to
be okay. Let's call it the quiet strength. When something
happens that's negative, that's tough to go through. What happens,
what happens to you hopefully learn from it, right Hopefully
(09:43):
if you go through that same thing, scenario, situation again,
well you have a better idea of how to handle it.
Right there, you go, there's one. Each time you experience
one thing, if you deal with it again, you'll have
a better idea of how to solution for and of
how to deal with it out of cope.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
That's resilience.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And you know, there's so many wonderful quotes about getting
knocked down and getting right back up, But that's resilience baby,
right there. Don't forget that. Don't forget that, and then
you gain something called empathy for going through a struggle,
(10:30):
having a lot in your mind, going through a lot
in your life helps you. Helps us see things, experience things,
feel things from other people's perspectives, which is important. And
it also gives you this determination to create develop a
different future for yourself, for your loved ones, your friends,
(10:53):
the children, your dogs, your cats, geckos. Maybe we know
from experience whether we want to experience something again or not.
We are in control of that for the most part.
And here's something to remember. It's okay to be proud
(11:19):
of how strong that you had to be and that
you are right now and still wish that you didn't
have to be. That's okay. This is another one of
those situations in scenarios that you can learn from. When
you're in this constant fight or flight mode, you fly
(11:41):
through everything. Learn to slow down. Life itself is not forever.
Don't forget that. Give yourself permission to laugh, play, rest
enjoy now that's important. That's also progression. That's learning from
(12:07):
your past mistakes of not creating the space for that.
And the cool part about becoming an adult is you
get to reparent yourself. And we'll talk more about parenting,
childhood parenting during the childhood more in another.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Episode, but.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
On a grand scale from a thirty thousand foot airplane
or helicopter. You get to reparent yourself when you become
an adult. What what do you need? Do you need
to travel more? That's what I'm doing. Do you need
to experience more people, more food? That's what I'm doing.
(12:56):
Do you need more love? Do you need more self sufficiency?
Do you need someone to tell you that you're proud
of you? Of course someone else can do that for you,
but you can do that for you too, And don't
forget that we all require ourselves to be proud of
(13:18):
ourselves to continue moving forward in a positive way. So now,
with all of that being said, in this first season,
we're just gonna do some quick episodes, just introducing different topics,
seeing what hits, what feels right. Let's reflect on what
(13:43):
we talked about today. Growing up too fast at the time,
doesn't feel like you're growing up too fast. I feel
like as a kid, it just feels like forever all
the time, especially when you're in school. A clock never
strikes five o'clock fast enough or whatever it is. What
to for high schoolers? I don't know, but if you
(14:06):
had to grow up too fast, give yourself some permission
to vent and relax now and you're not broken. You're
like a lot of people out there, your proof that
survival can turn into strength and strength can turn into healing.
Here's a question I'd love to see discussion over. What's
(14:30):
one thing that you wish that you could go back
and tell your younger self.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
At any age.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
If we had a time traveling machine and you could
go back and tell your younger self something, what would
it be. Let me know, share your thoughts with me.
You can even send me an email. We have one
of those now. I'm in the process of creating some
social media for interactions and I would love to engage
(15:02):
with everyone out there. But if you want to send
me an email for now, can send it to still
standingstrongpodcast at gmail dot com and I will make sure
I get to as many of them as I can.
But thank you so much for joining me today or tonight,
whatever time it is that you're enjoying or listening to
(15:25):
this podcast, and I look forward to doing this again,
and remember we are still Standing Strong.
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