Childhood

What do I miss about my childhood? Honestly, not too much. People often think childhood is great because you don’t have the responsibilities that you have as adults. However, as the saying goes:

“With great power comes great responsibility.” 

If we jumble that up a little, we could just as easily say:

“If you have no responsibility, that means you have no power.” 

Most people say their teenage years were the best of their lives because they had no responsibility, but it’s that exact same reason that makes me say I don’t miss much about my childhood. Much of my childhood involved doing things I didn’t want to. Spring breaks were busy trips abroad instead of pajama days at home, holidays were spent with large annoying groups instead of family and friends. You don’t get to pick where you live or where you go to school, or even the hours you want to do things in. 

Adulthood, on the other hand, gives you these freedoms. Sure, it’s a little more complicated than just having all your wildest dreams come true, but if something is important enough to you, you can put in the work to have it. Don’t like the neighborhood you live in? You can move! Don’t want to go to this church, or spend eight hours in that building every day? You can change that! The world of adulthood is a land of endless possibility!

Like I said, I’m not going to pretend that it’s all rainbows and butterflies. Those things that you really want take a little effort to get. It isn’t a video game where you can just have the nice house or fancy car. What you want might take some work. It might take sacrificing something else to get there. But great heights are achievable. I think the part where adults start to gripe is how tiring the process can be. It takes a lot of daily work with minimal reward. This is especially true for those of us that grew up with video games around. Those real-life simulators made the process seem like it was fun and simple. Real life is, unfortunately, a little less addicting. Dreams can take years to build, and luck can play a tragically large role in our success or failure. We feel like it should be a machine-like process: I do this thing and I get that in return. 

This is not to say, however, that I had a miserable childhood that I wish I could forget about. I miss the long bus rides where I could sit for 45 minutes and listen to music without anyone bothering me. On that note, I miss being able to rely on public transportation in general, not needing to worry about car maintenance and gas and whatnot. Sometimes my car is a very heavy part of me. I miss the feeling of finally touching down in America after long layovers and cramped flights. The city lights of the surrounding area, the smell that you can only find when you first step off the plane. The green of the highway signs, seeing posters in my own language. The streets and sidewalks that are only mildly cracked (seriously, guys, our sidewalks are heavenly compared to Europe's hazardous wastelands.) The first sip of American sodas that sent tingly reminders through my taste buds that I was, in fact, home. I could ramble all day, but you get the point. 

I think the big takeaway is that we have forgotten the joys of delayed gratification. We want our payoffs ASAP, forget waiting!. We try to overload ourselves with pleasures, so we wind up in pain. There is a deeper joy in working towards a bigger goal, but it is a joy long forgotten. We get caught up in the immediate stress and forget why we took it on in the first place. Some people ditch the long run altogether, never setting goals or taking interest in what they do at all! They live for the moment, and try to keep pushing off the pain. But I don’t say this from off in the distance. I get it, I have been there too. I have been through the days where I want my next step to happen yesterday!. I want my next reward to already be there. I have gotten the craving for quicker and bigger. The daily grind gets to me too sometimes. But I am learning to take a deep breath and trust that the process will pay off. 

So my childhood wasn’t bad, but I don’t ever wish I could go back. I had some things I enjoyed, but the quality my life has as an adult is far better. I don’t have to live in some of the conditions I grew up with. I don’t have to do some of the things I used to be forced into. Life is good. 

If you are in that chapter of life where you don’t have a say, take heart! You will have a say one day, and you can live free. Life keeps getting better, especially when you value the right things.

Until next time

May peace be your guide.