The Other Side Of Peter Pan Syndrome: When Your Friends Grow Up And Leave You Behind

There comes a time in our lives where all of us wake up and realize that it’s time for us to grow up and accept the so called “adult” way of living. The time when we finally get our shit together and forget the way of living back when we were below the age of 18. When mistakes were made and Neverland felt like it really did come to life for us, but what if you’re just another Peter Pan?

Whether a male or female, you’ve had difficulty of accepting the fact that the important people in your life are finally moving forward while you’re still stuck in limbo. It’s as if your mind is holding you back from keeping up with the flock and is just too stubborn. The problem is that you can’t accept the reality that you need change and though you know you want to keep up, your heart and soul just can’t let you because this is where you belong. If this is something you can understand and relate to, then I must welcome you to the island of misfit toys.

Now let me ask you, how many times have you’ve met a Wendy — or Wendys if we’re being a bit more plural here? I know I’ve met plenty. It could be the past ex-best friends that grew up way too fast for your liking or ex-boy/girlfriends that seemed to have more knowledge and knew what they wanted in their lives before you did. It could even be the people you currently interact with. It’s hard because as much as you know you want them to stay in this so called Peter Pan Disorder world with you, they all tend to Wendy it out in the end. It’s quite sad to see them grow out of it but you can’t really do anything about it now. You just learn how to accept it and deal with the fact that they’ve outgrown you. All you can do now is just sit back and be happy for them, since it is what people at your age seem expected to do. It’s the least you can do, knowing you can’t hold them back from living their lives because you’re not quite ready to live yours yet.

It brings you down at times and you go in denial. Don’t tell me you don’t, because I sure do. You tend to disagree when it comes to situations where you know they’re right and you’re wrong. Though in the back of your head you know that what you’re doing is not acceptable, the stubborn disorder tends to kick in and tell you otherwise. Of course, you’re not that stupid to keep on doing the things that aren’t beneficial to you moving on in your life but it does take a while and it still makes you quite unhappy. You wish you could just turn off the switch on them and bring them back to Neverland along with you, but it doesn’t go that way. Life keeps moving forward and it shouldn’t be held in the past.

It’s even hard to accept the fact you’ve invested all your time, love, and magic into someone who turns out to be a Wendy way before you’re ready to tag along. I mean sooner or later, we’ll get to that stage but so far even at the age of 18 it’s hard for me to grow out of this phase. I’m not saying it’s better to be a Peter than to be a Wendy but I’m just giving you a feel of what it’s like in our situation. We can also be Wendys in other fields in our lives, but most of the time we Peter it. It’s a bad quality to have a childish effect like this but if we could find a Wendy who would tag along and have the patience to wait for our growth, I’m pretty sure in the end it will be worth defeating any Captain Hook out there.

Whether it be stealing and keeping a treasure of pot, or smoking cigarettes with the Chief of the Piccaninny tribe along with his daughter tiger Lily, you just can’t seem to let go of this beautiful world you’re in, a world that you’ve so happened to share a long with a Peter just like you. It hits you real hard when you start opening more and more of your world to them just to let them realize that they couldn’t stay in Neverland with you and you’re here left alone with no one to understand your situation. Suddenly, you’re left roaming around the beautiful night sky in search for more people to tag along with your flock of Lost Boys.

So for all you Wendys out there, this is what we are. This is how we feel, and once you close that window to grow up without us, we slowly deteriorate a long with the magic and hope you left a long with poor Peter reminiscing on those first few nights of infinity with you.