Stop this train

As a 5-year-old, my favorite TV commercial was ToysRUs.’ You can only imagine how mesmerized I was each time the famous jingle I don’t wanna grow up came on. If you’re from KL (and my generation) you should know what I’m talking about. It went like this:

I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys' R Us kid
There's a million toys at Toys 'R Us that I can play with!
From bikes, to trains, to video games,
It's the biggest toy store there is! Gee whiz!
I don't want to grow, cuz baby if I did,
I wouldn't be a Toys 'R Us kid!

As I got older, I listened to Peter Pan’s I won’t grow up and that song (too) stuck with me for the longest time. I sang it in primary school, high school, and all the way to college.

I won't grow up
I don't want to wear a tie
With a serious expression
in the middle of July
If growing up
seems to be
beneath my dignity to climb a tree
I won't grow up
Never grow up
Never grow uuuuuup
Not me!

Humming these different songs depicting the same fear of ultimately growing up, I often wondered if there was something wrong with me. But it never mattered too much. Now at twenty-something, I know which song best illustrates (exactly) how I feel about growing up.

John Mayer’s Stop this train.

No, I'm not colorblind
I know the world is black and white
Try to keep an open mind
But I just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

Don't know how else to say it
I don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man
Said "help me understand"
He said "turn sixty-eight
You renegotiate"

"Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
And don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly we'll never stop this train"

Once in awhile, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark
Singing

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
Cause now I see I will never stop this train