Do you remember the days when you were little and had an imagination unlike any other? Constantly, there’d be people asking you “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, and you’d list countless of dream, from a singer to president and from a mermaid to an astronaut. I, for one, just wanted to be a cat, and to be honest, I'm still trying to figure out how to make that dream a reality.

Nowadays, when someone asks us that question, we simple shrug our shoulders and roll our eyes and think about how many times we've been asked that this week. We're closer to our future, and every day we get closer and closer to being "grown up."

And this thought scares us.

A "grown up", to most, has a negative connotation. Adults are "boring," "old," and "uptight".

At what point do we switch from little bundles of wonderment and joy to a plain ole adult?

We wake up one morning and all we can think about, all that fills our minds, is this concept that we need to be serious all the time. Why would anyone want to be boring, serious, and

There's this idea that we are meant to simply go to school, do the work, get a job, do the work, and money is our ultimate goal. With this notion, you work and work and work until you just can't work, until you just can't live, anymore. What's the fun in any of that?

Why is it that at some age our ideas and imagination take a turn? We go from having the craziest imaginations and dreams about all kinds of scenarios, from pretending our dolls and Legos came to life to imagining ourselves as mermaids every time we step foot (or better yet, fins) into a pool, and then all of a sudden, we scoff at these kinds of thoughts. When did we lose this sense of wonder? We get this idea of money drilled into our minds, as if we are zombies, but instead we're on a hunt for a paycheck instead of brains.

We went from tea parties with our teddy bears to college parties where we don't remember what happened after midnight. Where did the time go? Where did our priorities go? When did we make the switch from being a kid to a young adult? When did being imaginative, that being fun and spontaneous and whimsical, become a bad thing?

Encouraging the wonder, the questioning of the whole entire world around us, the true interest and fascination in learning new things, is what needs to be improved upon in this life. We should love to learn more, to strengthen our minds by thinking more and thinking wider and broader. There's so much more to explore in this life.

I wonder more and more every single day as to what happened in this life. When did I become an adult? Where did the time go? I would give anything to go back to the days where my only worry was if I had pudding or a fruit cup at snack time or if I would ever learn to tie my own shoes. Nowadays, I'm worried if I take the right class for my major, if I can pass my final exams, or if I say the right thing during a job interview. At this time of my life, I'm so wrapped up in my "future" and being "grown up," I'm losing sight of what's in front of me.

I wonder where I'll end up. I wonder what kind of person I'll be, and I wonder what kind of people I'll have surrounding me during my life.

All I know is that there's still a childhood sense of wonder living in me, and I'll do my best to keep it there, to nurture it, to encourage it, and never let it diminish.

My imagination is out of this world to the point I still think I have a chance to becoming a real mermaid someday. I'm a kid at heart, but this imagination sparks creativity and a true love of exploring and learning more about this life.

Never lose your sense of wonder.