This school year I will be a senior (scary, I know). The real world is coming fast, and almost every day someone asks me, "Are you ready to graduate?" For a while, I just smiled and said yes, but as I was asked the same question over and over, I really started to think about it. I am not in any way ready to graduate or to face the real world. More and more, I find myself thinking about elementary school, which seems like a million years ago now that I'm in college. There are many things I loved about being a kid.But, it is those memories that makes me want to go back as I get closer and closer to graduation.
1. Days seemed never-ending, especially in the summer.
As I get older, I'm convinced that the days are getting shorter. There just isn't enough time in the day to get things done. When I was a kid, a single day felt like a whole week, and summer days felt even longer. One day during the summer, when I was in elementary school, I had so much time that I learned how to flip 25 pennies off of my elbow and catch them all in my one hand. Talk about a good use of my time.
2. 1990s - early 2000s TV shows.
I'm definitely one of those '90s kids that thinks that my generation had the best TV "Spongebob Squarepants," "The Powerpuff Girls," "All That," "That's So Raven," "Kim Possible." There was always something to watch and it was always something good.
3. Always being near my friends and family
I think you truly realize how much you take for granted being close to your friends and family as soon as you leave them and going away to college has proven that to me. When I was a kid, I lived next door to my grandmother and my best friend's house was a 30-second walking distance from my front door, so I always had someone close by. Having almost unlimited access to my loved ones is one of the things I miss most.
4. School was *easy
Call me nerdy, but I loved school. I loved those 60-second tests where you had to answer 100 addition or subtraction problems, spelling tests and learning about Native Americans. I loved these things because they seemed fun. Maybe I just lucked out with having teachers that made learning fun, but school was something I looked forward to, not something I dreaded or something that stressed me out. Stress wasn't even a part of my vocabulary as a kid because there was never any stress in fun.
5. Having an endless amount of energy
I'm. Always. Tired. No matter how many hours I sleep at night, I'm tired again soon after I wake up. When I was a kid, I could sleep for four hours and have enough energy to run a marathon when I woke up. If only coffee could make me feel like that now.
6. Just being a kid
Being a kid can be described simply: it's fun. You don't think about it when you're young, but your time as a kid flies by.
To all you kids out there: I hope you're living up your childhood years.
If only time machines were real.
