“Come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned.” — Peter Pan
Once upon a time you were a little kid with dreams the size of the universe and aspirations that could fill the ocean. You felt like you could touch the moon. You did not have the weight of the world on your shoulders, all you wanted to do was play outside, and you did not worry about what others thought about you. It was simple. You were friends with almost everyone and if you didn’t know someone, you would go right up to them and act like you had been best friends forever. Everyone had a dream of being the president of the United States, an astronaut, a ballerina, or even doctor. All of our parents and teachers told us to reach for the stars and to chase our dreams and to chase them for the rest of our life. We were never afraid to take chances and to fall; we always thought we could fly. At what point did all of it stop? At what point did we stop those big dreams and how can we get back that mindset?
We took our childhoods for granted. All we wanted to do was to grow up and be an adult because we thought that was easy. We thought that if it did not come fast enough we would be stuck in the kid life forever. 13 Going on 30 was our inspiration for all of our ideas and we tried to dress as if we were sixteen or twenty. All we wanted was a cell phone but we did not realize how it would consume our lives. We wanted to be famous but again, we were unaware of the effects the limelight had on someone. We did not understand that social media would one day be the only thing we cared about. It was not until we started middle school that the reality of the real world was starting to come into play. When you are a kid you are totally unaware of the reality of life. You are protected from all of the evil in the world. At the age of thirteen or fourteen, the gates were let down and you suddenly realized how harsh life is and how long of a road you have ahead. Puberty, middle school, high school, college, and the future are all in front of you and suddenly you cannot breathe. It is at that point where you suddenly realize being a kid and not having to worry about submitting applications on time and making sure you have straight A’s and B’s was not bad after all. It is at that point where we realize we should have listened to our parents who told us to never wish to grow up. We finally realize we will never get that time back and all we have are memories and pictures.
I would do anything to just go back in time for a day. To go back and play sports outside and not care about anything. To play with my dolls for hours and take them everywhere. To enjoy the long pool days and the days at the baseball field watching my brother’s games. To go back and make a lemonade stand. It is true that we could do all of those things now, but there is something about adulthood that will not let us.
As we age and grow we appreciate our childhoods and we only hope that our kids and grandkids understand the importance of savoring your childhood and holding on as long as you can because once you grow up, you never are going back. Now we understand why Peter Pan never wanted to grow up.
