Childhood should be a time that people try to hold onto with all their might, and never want to let go. When the innocence escapes, and you realize how the world really is, it should be one of the most sad things in a person's life. For a lot of people, it doesn't work that way. They were exposed to the evil in the world at young ages, and didn't get a chance to experience the sense of safety that comes with thinking that everything is right and bad guys are always punished and the good guys always win. I imagine that people that grew up in that sort of background would want the innocence back even more than the ones who grew up with a happy background, because the innocence was gone even faster.
People have different ideas about what makes a person a child and what doesn't. For some people, it's purely age related. They say that once a person reaches a certain age, they're an adult. Others say that it has to do with how much a person knows about the world. Now, I know that I am not an adult in any way. I'm fifteen, and I still have a lot to learn, but I still think I have a pretty good grasp on what's screwed up about the world, like most people do.
If I'm thinking about childhood, especially from the not knowing much about the world idea of childhood, I would do anything to get it back and stay as a six year old forever. I can't do that, for obvious reasons, so I hold onto things as hard as I can. It may not be material possessions, I'm not going to keep a doll I hardly ever played with or anything like that, but I will still do some things I would as a little kid. For example, I still play Neopets, even though I'm above the target age. I have a different account and I save my neopoints for different things than I would have when I was eight, but it's the same in many ways. Sometimes I still wonder if I'm still on Stardoll because it was such a big part of who I was when I was eleven or twelve. I still like to chew the really bright pink Double Bubble gum that I would always have a kid. I have a picture in my room that's still on the same place on my wall that it was when I was three. Little things like that.
What do you all do to try to preserve the innocence of childhood?
I honestly didn't think this post had much of a point. I think you're a wonderful writer but sometimes your posts just come out rather boring.
ReplyDeleteLAME
ReplyDeleteNostalgia is a delicate thing. I agree with you. Stardoll brings back my days of childhood. Ironically, that was before I'd known Stardoll. childhood was a very simple time, when drama was just influenced around who would get the swing or something.
ReplyDeletegood times.
Loved this post don't listen to MandyLou4. I wish I was still 10, the age I discovered stardoll. Theres so much drama crap these days. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really one for hanging onto my childhood -- there's too much to do in the future, and things generally sucked in elementary school, for me. However, I still have several Tamagotchis, and I'm entering college in about a month. I regret nothing.
ReplyDeleteI'm also still a huge SpongeBob fan.
And, of course, there's still Stardoll, which always brings me back. It's so different now, though.
Loved this post. Being a child was a wonderful time, though my childhood was ruined by many night mares of that guy who touched me when I was only five years old. I still remember how I was running home crying after he was done with me. In fact he was a close friend of our family, only 12 years old. Ugh, I always remember that when I remember my childhood.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 9 we moved to "Far Far Away". I still remember all those fucking haters and bullies in middle school.
Good times? Not for me :(