When I was young, I remember waking up as early as I could just because I didn’t want to miss out on whatever the day had to offer. I remember being sad if I slept late, simply because I felt as though I had missed out. I remember firmly believing that I could do anything I wanted to. I remember the bravery, determination and faith of childhood.

It seems funny to hear, but I believe that as we grow older, we become more afraid—maybe not of thunderstorms and monsters, no, but of other things. We fear what people think of us, failure, and running out of time. We fear the people around us, the world, and ourselves. We are afraid that if we don’t live our lives just so, we will not be remembered- or we will be, but for the wrong reasons. When did we become so afraid?

You see, when we were children, we understood that we didn’t know everything. We were constantly trying to learn new things, try new things, and we didn’t give up easily. We were curious about other people and how the world works.

We knew that we couldn’t do life on our own because we were somehow aware of our own dependency. As we grew, we started to believe that the older we got, the more we knew. This is true, of course, but we went wrong when we started to believe that the more we knew, the less we needed to learn, the less we needed to try, and the less we needed other people to show us how the world works.

Instead of looking up at life and drinking in its many wonders, we look down at ourselves, and into our own individual lives. We worry only about the things that directly affect us, and desire complete control over those things. Thus, we are afraid of the things that we cannot control. As children, we more or less cannot control anything, and we accept that. Instead of fearing the world, we are in awe at its intricacies.

So what am I getting at?

I am proposing a regression. Let’s go back to the days when the world was magical—before we became so engrossed in ourselves that this beautiful world became nothing but dulled white noise. Before our wonder turned into fear.

I want to go back to the fearlessness of childhood- before I cared so much about how people saw me, that every ounce of my being became obsessed with molding their perception of me. Let’s go back to the days when getting out of bed was a privilege, not a chore.

Perhaps this seems idealistic, or perhaps you’re just a little cynical. Either way, it can never hurt to take a step back from ourselves and appreciate the people and the world around us; to thank God for this magnificent creation, and to love people just a touch more.