Early Days

Day after day, right outside my window, I take notice of these kids playing. Sometimes it’s the little show-off kids with their fancy scooters and bikes, who’s parents have basically omitted the best part of their children’s youth, which is using their imagination to keep them occupied, not their money. But most of the time it’s 2 sisters and they’re older brother (maybe around 7), fooling around and occupying themselves, sometimes with friends, most of the time on their own. And it reminds me so much of being a kid. There are so many values that you shake off once you cross the threshold of being a kid and more significant things take over your life (in my case, guys), but I’m lucky I still remember some of them. Castles, dragons, princesses, superheroes…They’re all fantasies that I quickly let go off. I don’t know many people who remember. You kind of just move on and stop thinking about them. I wonder if even my brother remembers. I've listed the things I remember from my childhood adventures, I think all of us had believed in these too…
- I remember we believed that our cats had the ability to communicate with us, and we were the only ones who understood (although for some reason mom still talks to our kittens and cats when they’re meowing for food: okaay, okaaaay, don’t worry, your food will be ready right now. Very amusing to my brother and I).
- I remember we believed that we had superpowers that were yet to be revealed, and each of us had their own top-secret power that well matched our individuality.
- Superheroes existed for sure.
- Beasts existed too, and at night they would show up but because we were secretly endowed with superpowers they would try all night but we still woke up unharmed.
- Our favorite blanket had unknown powers and protected us from all harm, and we had to carry it around wherever we went.
- Our teddy bears/toys/dolls could hear and understand everything we said, and whenever we were out of the room they would resume their normal lives, and when we came back they pretended to be motionless so we wouldn’t tell our parents that they were living. Of course, we knew they exited because they would never remain at the same place we left them. But we didn’t tell our parents anyway, because we were on the toys’ side.
- I remember we lived in a world were there was so much to find out, and we had so many quests to live through from the moment we woke up till we went to bed, and new journeys coming up the next day.
- Most of all I remember that our make-believe lives were real, and we only pretended to be ordinary to our parents because they would never understand, but the moment they stopped watching we had to resume our imaginary lives, which were actually more real to us than anything else.
I usually forget about all this, and get irritated at the kids outside my window for making so much noise. In my head I’m thinking: God! Don’t they ever get tired? I forget that I was exactly the same, I had the exact same adventures, and they were endless too. I also adored the older girl who lived next door who never went out, and seemed always to gaze at us from inside her room, and we’d pretend we couldn’t see her so she knew we weren’t intentionally making all that noise ;)

Quote of the day: Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.