I just saw a “packing for college” list that reminded everyone it was time to retire the stuffed animals when you head off to your new life.
And so, for any followers who might be in/preparing to go to college, let me say this loud and clear:
FUCK YOU, PACKING FOR COLLEGE LIST
And now I just want to run around taking the hands of any soon-to-be college freshmen and letting them know: growing up does not mean letting go of your comfort objects
life is hard enough without telling yourself you’re too old to feel safe
geez, even for people of able body and mind, heading off to college can be an extremely stressful, scary time, especially if it involves moving far away from home! and that goes extra for people with chronic illness or disability. What a cruel thing to tell people, that they have to retire their comfort objects to achieve maturity at a time when they might need them more than ever.
Maturity is NOT denying yourself things that do no harm to anyone, and help you feel safer and stronger. Maturity is recognizing when you need assistance and allowing yourself to have it, no matter what form is takes.
Pffff, I’m thirty years old and you can bet your bottom I kept the dolphin stuffed animal my mother gave me when I was seven. It stayed with me through four years of college and traveled across the US with me twice. Now it lives on a little shelf in my bedroom, along with a growing family consisting of several octopuses, a few jellyfish, a seahorse, and two sea turtles.
I would have more, but I left those in the house I grew up in, and guess what, I’ll likely never see my orca plush or my smarmy talking hammerhead shark ever again.
Don’t even worry about “too old”. Whether it’s a comfort object that brings you peace or you just really like the toy or blanket or whatever it is that makes you happy, take it with you! Having something beloved and familiar in a brand new setting is a huge comfort either way.
To sum up, a nice quote from C.S. Lewis:
“Critics who treat ‘adult’ as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
So there, the list can go jump in a lake, you officially have C.S. Lewis’s permission to keep whatever cherished objects you like.
hello tumblr, i’m 42 years old, a homeowner, an uncle, p much a Responsible Adult ™.
i have a mantel full of toy cars, action figures, couple of plushies, a little plastic enderman carrying a tiny companion cube, some legos, a little sailboat – these aren’t Grownup Collectibles to look at and not touch. they’re toys. they’re comfort objects. sometimes when i’m feeling down i’ll pick up that little enderman and walk it along the back of the couch, and have it boop my cat’s nose with its little heart cube, and it makes me feel better.
the only difference between these toys and the ones i had when i was little (which are sadly all either long gone or too fragile to have out) is that i have to dust their shelf myself nowdays.
25 year old who’s been paying rent for three years here (so not super adult, but you know, post college adult!)
I bought another stuffed animal YESTERDAY. i still sleep with my security blanket. Attached to my bulletin board is an article my mom cut out for me from “Real Simple” magazine titled “it’s never too old for comfort items” extolling the psychological benefits of having tangible items that can be used for comfort and safe feelings.
do not cast aside your comfort items bc some packing list tells you to. if you feel like you need them, take them with you. especially when you’re doing something like going to college, which is difficult and new and scary.
I am 37 years old and i still sleep with a bear called Sidney and i will fight anybody who tries to take him from me
The Archery Range 