When I was a child, I couldn’t wait to get older. I was quite the opposite of Wendy in "Peter Pan," who never wanted to grow up. I couldn’t wait to be my own boss and stay up late to read however long I wanted to. But now that I am growing older, I’m finding that I’m longing to find my inner child once more. I look at myself and my peers around me, and I find a common thread in this struggle to be older but still maintain the fun and fantasy we once felt when taking on situations in life as opposed to the responsibilities and pressures we feel now as we become adults. Realizing this common desire to delve into our nostalgic sides, I’ve compiled a list of ways to help, as I believe we are all still capable and should be encouraged to be kids every once in a while:
1. Grab a coloring book.
Adult coloring books may be all the rage right now, but why limit yourself? You’re an adult, which gives you the right to go pick up a coloring book for the child you do not have. Treat yourself!
2. Have a movie marathon.
You’ve always talked about how you should have one, so why not get around to it now? Whether you decide to do Disney, Pixar, "Harry Potter" or a selection of all of your childhood favorites, you will have a night well spent.
3. Cook your favorite foods.
Find some dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, "Scooby Doo" push-up pops, and grilled cheese sandwiches, and you’re good to go. It’s a smorgasbord of all the things you wish you could eat now without being judged, so do it!
4. Have a board game night.
When’s the last time you pulled out Clue? Or Sorry? Or if you’re really feeling bold Twister? Get a group of friends together and have everyone bring their favorite board game. You used to play them all the time as a kid, and they’re still just as great as they were back then (although, take your risks with Jumanji).
5. Pick up a book that you loved to read as a child.
You may have gotten rid of them, or they may be out of print by now, but go try and find a book that you couldn’t put down as a child. Rereading it now is almost like recapturing that magic once again as it’s literally been years since you last read it. So go ahead and pick up one of the books from the "Magic Tree House" series or "Junie B. Jones" or "The Giving Tree." Or all of them!
6. Go down a rabbit hole of throwback songs on YouTube.
Start with a song you used to jam to off your boombox and get in trouble for jumping on the bed. That should be a good start. Then see where the related videos to that song take you. You’d be surprised how many songs you forgot you once memorized all of the words to.
7. Find episodes of a show that you used to go nuts over.
The toughest part of this is first deciding which to show to revisit. You want to remember how you thought you could be psychic too like Raven from "That’s So Raven"? How much you longed to go to boarding school like "Zoey 101"? Or how you always secretly wanted to compete on "Legends of the Hidden Temple"? The second toughest part is how to find these shows, but if you dig through the depths of the internet far enough, you should be able to find a way.
8. Do something nostalgic that you forgot still existed.
This can literally be anything. Buy a ring pop, play a game of M.A.S.H, make some Shrinky Dinks, or tie-dye something! There are so many activities still available to us that we forget about just because we’ve stopped looking in the children’s section at Toys R Us.
There’s still a lot of ways to make our childhood selves present – we just have to stretch our imaginations a little more in how to get there.
