When Wendy asked Peter what he would do when he was older, he looked at her with genuine confusion.
He said that he had already decided that question a very long time ago and saw no reason to revisit it.
Growing older meant trading swords for briefcases and night flights for early bedtimes and quiet rooms.
It meant forgetting the names of the mermaids and losing the ability to hear what the wind was saying.
Peter had been to the ordinary world and had pressed his face against its lighted windows at night.
He had seen what the people inside had given up and had turned away from the window without hesitation.
Some things, Peter believed, were worth more than comfort and safety and the approval of the adult world.
Peter Pan chose wonder and adventure over growing up.

The choice that defines Peter Pan is not simply a preference for play over work or fun over duty.
It is a philosophical position about what makes a human life genuinely worth living from moment to moment.
Most people accept the bargain of growing up without examining it very carefully or questioning its terms.
They trade imagination and wonder for stability and social acceptance and call this process maturity.
Peter refused the bargain because he had done the calculation and found the terms deeply unfavorable.
Wonder, to Peter, was not a luxury that could be set aside once you had experienced enough of it.
It was the essential thing — the quality that made all other experiences meaningful and worth having at all.
He understood this with a clarity that most adults spend their entire lives trying to recover.
Peter Pan chose wonder and adventure over growing up.