Occasionally, when I contemplate my childhood, I feel a sense of jealousy, as ridiculous as that sounds. When I was a child, my biggest concern was what my mom would be serving for dinner, or trying to stretch the limits of my bedtime in order to stay awake and watch just one more episode; when I think about how carefree I was as a child, as children should be, I feel jealous that I’m no longer able faced with such minimal concerns as opposed to the concerns I face in my adult years.
I think growing up is an unnecessarily miserable process. We are socially conditioned into believing that adulthood doesn’t pose an opportunity for fun or play, and this is a seriously destructive mindset. It’s no wonder so many adults are in perpetual bad moods when you consider the notion of adulthood in this frame of mind; playing and fun is for children, and, as adults, we are way past that.
I don’t agree with this ideology, though. I’m not suggesting that as adults we should be hitting up the sandbox with our buckets and shovels and playing tag in the yard, although, there really is nothing wrong in doing either of these things as an adult here and there; what I am suggesting, though, is that adults deserve to be playful and have fun, too, and I don’t think we allow ourselves to do so, generally speaking.
If you’re an adult reading this, I ask you to pause and contemplate the last time you truly had fun. If you’re struggling to do so, this solidifies my point, and it’s also an indication you need to consider some things in life that once brought you joy that you haven’t dabbled in for a long while now. Just because we are adults doesn’t mean we can’t connect with our inner child from time to time.
Photo by Artem Kniaz on Unsplash
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