It may just be the over-scheduled college student in me speaking, but lately I can't help but reminisce about what it was like to be a little kid. Don't get me wrong, life as a 19-year-old is pretty great, but there will always be something special about the barefoot sugar-rushed days of childhood. Here are a few of the things I miss most:
1. Dressing purely for comfort
Back in the days before job interviews and internships became a reality, our childhood selves were able to get away with wearing practically anything. For the entirety of fourth grade, I refused to wear anything but a red Coca Cola sweatshirt, gaucho pants, and green Keens. Although it might have driven my mother a bit crazy, I couldn't have cared less about my choice of attire--it was comfortable. Nowadays, dressing in the morning actually requires a bit more thought, and potentially even pants that I can't comfortably somersault in.
2. Having an unrealistic amount of 'best friends'
According to my kindergarten diary, I was a proud participant in over fifty best friendships. Although that list may have included everyone in my family, the grocery store clerk, and the mailman, my self-inflated 5-year-old ego led me to truly believe in my unusual popularity.
3. Loving, not just liking, everything.
I have a theory that children are about 3000% more enthusiastic about mundane, everyday things than their adult counterparts. If you have trouble imagining a forty-year-old man businessman squealing with delight at the prospect of ice cream for dessert, you probably agree with me on some level. There is something strangely endearing about the extreme levels of enthusiasm with which children meet each day.
4. Deciding what to be when you grow up
Although I changed my mind just about every week, by the second grade I had pretty much decided on my future career as a horseback-riding ballerina-detective-author. Armed with the unwavering confidence in my ability to manage such a complicated career and my complete lack of knowledge about the job market, this seemed like a great plan at the time.
5. Being proportionally tiny compared to the rest of the world.
If you have ever experienced a sense of astonishment at viewing the actual size of things that your kid-self remembered as being gargantuan, you are likely a victim of childhood disproportionality disorder. As a general rule, things just seem cooler and bigger when you are a kid. It also means that a ride on that super tall slide you enjoyed in third grade will be an inevitable bore to you now.
6. Nap-time
This one is entirely self-explanatory.
7. Waking up early...naturally
Nowadays, I need to set multiple alarms (and snooze buttons) before I muster up the will power to drag myself out of bed in the mornings. At age 5, however, I was thoroughly convinced that the day began with the rising of the sun. I do miss the extra hours of the day that I gained as an early-bird, but my brain literally cannot function with that amount of sleep anymore.
