Today as I was walking home from school, I saw some of the kids in my neighborhood playing together outside. Somehow, they had managed to attach a rolling cart to a scooter and were zooming down the street with their contraption. As unstable as it looked, the kids all looked like they were having the time of their lives. For a moment, it took me back to my childhood and memories of how exciting Fridays were when you came home from school and immediately went outside to play with your friends. Those were the days.

Living in a college town, I sometimes forget that people outside of my age demographic exist. When you spend your entire day on campus, surrounded by thousands of people of a similar age, you can see how it would be easy to forget that college students are not the only inhabitants of the town. Now that I live a bit off the beaten path, there are quite a few more families in my neighborhood. That means that I see quite a few more kids on a regular basis than I have in the last few years. But I have enjoyed it, because without intending to, these kids remind me to enjoy the simple things in life.

It is so easy to get caught up in the daily grind that sometimes we forget to take a step back and enjoy our day. But kids aren’t really like that- they don’t have the mindset yet of having to stress about responsibilities. So when I am walking home from a long day, thinking about all of the things that I have to do that night, I am often jolted out of my mindset by all of these neighborhood kids. They have better things to do than to worry about life, and every now and then, they share the simple joys in life with me.

Just on my walks home this semester, I have been invited to pet goats, shot at with a squirt gun, asked to race on my bike, and given a handful of flowers, all by various neighborhood kids. Each instance was rather shocking, but they all brought a smile to my face. All of these things, and the many more interactions, were all made up of the simplest things. Things like petting a goat or taking flowers home are not considered to be the defining moments in life, and yet they brought me more joy than the rest of my day did.

These kids, at this moment in life, have it figured out. They allow the simplest of things in life to bring the greatest joy. I don’t spend a lot of time with kids at this point in my life, but I want to remember these interactions and how they brightened my day. It is so easy to get lost in our minds and forget to enjoy the things that are right in front of us. We forget to stop and smell the roses, or in my case, forget to stop and pet the goats. In the end, the mere moments we dedicate to simple pleasures can bring more joy than we can imagine. Thank you to all of the neighborhood kids for pointing this fact of life out to me, and making my daily commute so much brighter.