In the stereotypical dream of growing up, children try on their mother’s high heels or their father’s ties. As a teenager, who is graduating from high school this year though, I am holding onto my childhood as much as possible. Children do not realize the bliss of their childhood innocence until they begin losing it. Instead of looking into the future and trying to grow up too fast, people need to embrace and hold onto their childhood.
The desire to be more mature is known to nearly everyone especially when they are teenagers who are just trying to fit in. As a result, less jokes are made, less laughs are heard, and less smiles are seen. Many individuals race towards the heavy responsibility of adulthood without realizing its significance. People focus too much on their work or being productive as they mature. The playful enjoyment of a child is lost, leading to the eventual awareness of the cruelty in the world. With no innocence left, people experience a sense of sadness which they often cannot understand. This is not entirely inevitable though. We can slow our pace down and turn our phones off. Let us not worry about our appearances but of our happiness. Let us focus on the positivity in the world and not the negativity.
Nearly done with high school and preparing for college, I now see my own childhood slipping away. No longer are there trips to Disney World or days spent in Rhode Island. Teddy bears and dolls do not sit on my bed anymore but are stuffed away in my closet. And of course the magic of Christmas is gone as well. This is the sad reality for many teenagers; for the teenage girls whose sand castles were replaced by tanning and for the boys whose playful attitudes were replaced by rough demeanors.
Do you remember being happier when you were younger? You probably were. Not only were you not exposed to the sinful nature of the world, you still possessed your sense of imagination. When bored, phones and computers are not children’s first options. They pretend to be someone else like an astronaut or princess. Growing out of our childhoods, we do not play pretend anymore and we do not venture outside. Instead many of us alleviate our boredom or stress in much more negative ways: drugs and alcohol.
With so much going on in our lives whether it be college applications, sports, or friends, we do not remember to think about our childhoods. There is little time to realize the importance of that innocence and try preserving it, but we need to make it, before our childhoods disappear forever.
Image courtesy of Alliance for Childhood UK.