Addie Conway
Conway.Addie@wgmail.org
As I prepare myself for starting my real life and going to college, I find myself taking a few steps into nostalgia.
To be fair, it seems like everything from my childhood is coming back. The VHS tapes of Disney movies like “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and of course, “The Lion King” have all been taken out of the Disney vault and re-released on DVDs. TV shows like Nickelodeon’s “All That” and “Pokémon” are coming back. Even the toys from the 1990s are starting to make a comeback, with re-releases of Polly Pocket and Furbys.
As I grow older, it’s kind of nice to go back to childhood or at least, the good parts of childhood. Believe me when I say, I definitely don’t want to go back to learning basic math or not having people listen to me when I talk, though that still happens.
Does anyone else remember having their own secret languages as kids, not being able to take naps because you were so pumped up and of course, recess? I do, and those memories make me smile. I’m ready to grow up and take on the real world, but I will always remember my childhood.
You only get one chance to act like a kid, and as a senior my chance is pretty much done. Sure, there are a few moments (like now), when I can reminiscence about being a kid in the 90s, but time is running out for me to actually relive some parts of my childhood.
When I say reliving some parts of my childhood, I don’t mean dressing up in your left-over clothes and talking in baby voices. I mean going to the park, maybe watching a Disney movie here or there and introducing your younger cousin or sibling to the toys you used to play with as kids.
When I was a kid, being a grown-up was the coolest thing and the only thing I thought about. You got to drive, have your own house and do whatever you wanted. Now I know it’s definitely not fun and games, because your life totally changes.
As we entered high school, we got a taste of that. People got their licenses and jobs, made their own money and became more independent.
Just because we’re starting to gain our independence, though, doesn’t mean that we’re totally grown up. We still have time to act like kids, and if that means occasionally breaking out that Nintendo or trying to learn Furby language-well, we still have time, even the seniors.
We all rush through life, trying to get ahead of what’s coming, whether that is age or death. Next time you drive by the park or it’s a nice day out, why not just stop and play? Next time your little cousin or sibling begs you to play a game with them or watch an old-time Disney movie, why not? Just because we’re all about to start our next stage in life, doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate what we had in our childhood either.
