Let's go back...

What happened to the simple days? The days that seemed to last forever. The days that were spent with eyes wide open, amazed by smallest things that still surround us now, but hold different meaning. Days that were lived one at a time. Those days have slipped away. They've been pushed aside by life's inability to slow down. They join youth, carelessness, and innocence; a giant cluster of everything we took for granted and wished would end. As I sit here in the house where I was once a young, naive girl, I am reminded of these days from my past. These thoughts could bring upon sad feelings, realizing that these days cannot be relived. But instead, I prefer to relish in the memories and laugh at the thought of them.

This Friday night is much different from those in the past. Friday nights were the best part of the week during our childhood here on Section Street. Not only could we sleep anywhere we wanted, but we could stay up later, without a single worry about the day to follow. There were no alarm clocks, no obligations, and certainly no concerns. We'd laugh for hours, our topics of conversation so unimportant, yet fragile. We would be surrounded by our favorite snacks; stress over caloric intake and nutritional value did not exist.

And since we did not worry about food at all, we were free of guilt. Free of body issues. Free of self-confidence issues. We did not worry about the number we saw on the scale, and probably never even stepped on the stupid thing. Makeup and beauty were things we played with, but did not depend on for happiness and acceptance. Our favorite outfit was a random mix of "play clothes", and were typically shared between us and passed down from sister to sister. To us, being wild was accepting the dare to run around the house in the dark. Being adventurous was trudging through the woods in search for the perfect spot for a secret fort. Cooking was gathering things from the garden and mixing them with mud, water, and a variety of grasses from the field to create a stew.

Our most humiliating moments turned into the everyday happenings of life today. Our biggest discoveries have become those things today that don't get an ounce of our attention. Anxiety occurred while you awaited mom's decision after asking if you could take a bike ride to the dime store. Since the answer was typically yes, freedom was riding down the street in a frenzy to get to our destination. Being frugal did not exist, and we spent every cent of our $3.00 on candy or the occasional useless toy.

Fun did not stop. And it certainly did not need to be sought after like it does today. Grief was experienced after killing a jar of fireflies that served as your nightlight on any given summer night. Death was one of those things that you heard about but swore never actually happened. Hard work was solving a scavenger hunt created by my older sister, and patience was practiced while we waited for her to finish it. Self-improvement meant rinsing your dirty feet off with the hose and setting goals was something adults did. Exhaustion came after a rousing game of badminton and generally lasted no longer than a few minutes. Being comfortable in your skin truly did exist and body image did not. The small things in life were just there, all around us. We did not need to search for them, or bask in them, they were simply there. Time seemed to stand still and getting older, like death, was not something that we would ever experience.

So let's go back to these days. Let's run around without a care in the world, as if getting winded doesn't exist. Let's tell stories and laugh at the dumbest things. Let's explore the world around us, even if it means staying in our backyard. Let's do it...because nobody is telling us we can't.