I've been thinking lately, with just finishing my first year of college, about my childhood and the things I miss and took for granted. Transitioning into adulthood has been a crazy experience for me and sometimes I just want to go back to when things were much easier.
One of the things I wish that I could go back to is how you could meet someone and get along so well right away you were convinced they were your best friend after an hour. Friendships as you get older can change so fast and even fall apart so quickly. I miss when friendships were easy and you didn't have to worry about fighting over something stupid that was said or seen on social media.
Another thing that I miss about childhood is how one of my biggest responsibility was organizing my toys. Today, I have more responsibilities than I can count of my hands. They range from all of my homework to an email that has to be sent that day to figuring out where I am working over the summer because I need to start having a real source of income. On top of all of this, making sure that I am staying in contact with my parents and family so that they know I'm still alive. Not to mention, remembering peoples birthdays when I can't even match my socks in the morning.
When you're little, in your parents eyes you can do nothing wrong. This was something I took for granted. It was so nice to hear your parents telling their friends how wonderful you are. Not to say that your parents don't still think you're wonderful, but there is a lot more that affects this now.
I miss the time when the hardest test I would have to take would be a weekly spelling test (which was the only test I aced). And of course the always dreaded math tests. I can't even believe that I ever complained about taking a math test where the hardest math problem I had to do was to find the square root of 16.
I realized when I got to college how much I loved having family dinner and having my parents cook for me. I never enjoyed when my parents would tell me that I had to be home at a certain time so that we could all eat dinner together. Now, I don't have the money to cook for myself (even if I did I wouldn't be able to make anything even close to edible.)
Although there are many things I miss about childhood, I will not miss hearing people say that I am too young or too immature. I will not miss people stopping their conversation when I come around because they think that I just won't understand.
Taking a step away from all of this in my first year being away from home and being completely dependent on my parents has been an overall good experience. Although I still wish I could go back to being that little girl that carried a stuffed animal around with her all the time and could fall asleep anywhere because I was just too tired from all of my thrilling carefree activities. The adventure to adulthood is sure to be a wild ride, but I think I am well prepared as long as I stop and remember my wonderful childhood.
