Rosemary Hemmelgarn

I’ve Grown Up Too Fast

Rosemary Hemmelgarn

I grew up between two brothers and when I moved away the dishes stopped getting done and my little brother crashed his car I grew up learning how to be a wife before I learned how to be a girlfriend So now every man runs away because why does she have her shit figured out But I don’t, my dad just always seems mad at me because I don’t want to settle down back home But who can blame him when the oldest keeps quitting jobs and the youngest will never grow up I feel like I’ve lived a lifetime at 20 and I try to ignore everyone’s faces when I say my parents haven’t came to see me in two months because I know how to do my own taxes and it’s okay to spend holidays alone when you’re paying bills No one could prepare me for the loneliness that comes with not raising anyone anymore And how hard it is to do your own dishes I grew up too fast But what did they expect when I was the child who was forced to hold my little brother while they screamed

at each other in the other room I grew up too fast and when I moved away my mom moved into my room and cried to me about dad every time I came home I am grown And I won’t let my roommate do the dishes because she loads the dishwasher wrong every time And I walk away from everyone because I hate fights and all the yelling And I order food every night instead of cooking because I am so tired of being grown