Do you remember what life was like as a 5-year-old? I do, and surprisingly for how curious I am now, I was certainly sure of how everything worked way back when.

The life and times of a youth from the sticks:

ENTERTAINMENT

I liked to play alone with my little plastic animal toys and Polly-Pockets, or make a town out of Lincoln Logs with my brother. My favorite things to do were building dams in the creek and picking berries. My brother and I made a “secret garden” in a small patch of woods by the stream, and we took very good care of it. It was a simpler time.

STRANGER DANGER

I had a hard time remembering not to talk to strangers, especially the ones who had dogs. At the mall, my mom had to use a leash, because I would see something or someone interesting and take off running. I would approach any random person I saw and would talk to them as if I had known them forever. At this time, we were living in a duplex, and we rented out the other side to many different people. Originally, we had an old married couple next door. When the gentleman was out sitting on his porch swing, I would hop over the separation railing and climb up next to him. Any and every old man I met I named “Pappy”, and they’d treat me like one of their own too. When I was bored, I would go knock on the doors of my neighbor's houses and ask them to come out and play with me. Most of them were adults, but they’d humor me anyway.

NUTRITION

I started out as a picky eater, so in order to get me to eat a meal I’ve never had before, my mom would just tell me it was chicken, and I would gobble it down. For everything else, if I could dip it in ketchup or A1 sauce, I could bear it. My one grandmother taught me the importance of always eating your dessert first just in case you wouldn’t have room for it later.

THE BIRDS AND THE BEES

One time I asked my mom if I had to have kids in the future, and she told me I didn’t have to. I asked her how I could be sure. She said “you just choose not to”. And so from there, I thought the only thing you had to do in order to have children was to will it.

DEATH

All dying meant was to go to sleep and not wake up Everything would just go black and you’d be in a peaceful sleep forever. I had heard of death, but I never knew anyone personally who died, so I figured that most people didn’t have to do it. Nothing scared me about death. it seemed more or less of an object than an event. It was just another route people could take in life.

WORLD GEOGRAPHY

I grew up in a small town nestled among the Appalachian Mountains. I loved my mountains dearly, and no matter where we went, I always saw them and felt safe. One day when we were going somewhere in the car, I asked my mom what was on the other side of that mountain. She said, “another mountain”. I thought for a second, “and what about behind that mountain”? “Another mountain”. So it was settled: the whole world was simply mountains. Sometime in the future, we had driven far enough away from my little town that the mountains had petered out- we were in the flatlands and I was mortified to say the least.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

I honestly didn’t consider there to be anyone else on Earth other than the few people I met in the few towns that I had been to. I believed my mom knew everyone in our town because I must have assumed it was even smaller than it was. When we would wait to pick my brother up after school, I would ask her “who was that?” anytime someone walked by. Once we took a plane ride to visit my aunt in Texas; basically, we went into a machine that transported us to another world. This place had nothing to do with my world, but was fun all the same.

GOOD vs. EVIL

Even though I felt death was just a never ending sleep, I still felt doing the right thing was of utmost importance. On questioned why, I probably would have told you, “because it’s the right thing to do”. Sometimes I would do “bad” things unknowingly, but once my mom told me it was wrong, I would feel very guilty and make a point to never do it again, and deter others from doing it as well.

On account of my upbringing, I connected smoking, drinking, gambling, swearing, and tattoos with the brand of “bad people”. I was to avoid this type of person because, obviously, they were up to no good. There was one particular man, who to my knowledge, did none of those things but I was to avoid him at all costs- per my mother’s orders.

GENDER

I can’t say I truly understood gender per se. I knew there were “women”, my mom was one after all, but the majority of other people I saw on a daily basis were guys. I assumed women were pretty rare, so I probably wasn’t one. I looked more like my brother than my mom anyhow, so I figured I was probably right.

AGE

For some reason I viewed everyone and everything as a consistent entity. Even though I did grow and change, I suppose I never really noticed. In my mind, there were three different ways to be human: man, woman, or child. I figured everyone else had the same experience as me: one day I just “woke up” and was here.

It’s amazing how much a human changes from ages 5 to 15, and from 15 to 25. If you ever want to get a fresh outlook on the world, I invite you to sit down with a five-year-old and ask them about their views on life. Children have a lot more complex thoughts and ideas then we most often give them credit for!

Needless to say I've changed a lot-- and I love who I am today. I've had many unique experiences, and I've traveled the world. These things played a large part in opening my mind. Of all the lessons I've learned, one thing is certain: the more I learn, the less I know. Even still, through it all, I wouldn't change my childhood for anything.