As children, we couldn’t wait for the time when we would grow up to come. We wanted the independence of having the ability to do whatever we wanted and to make our own decisions in our own lives.
Now, as I find myself getting older, I find myself longing to be a child again.
All of the independence that we wanted so badly is now ours, but I want my independence taken back from me. I want to go back to being a child with no responsibilities, nothing to worry about and stress over, and to have the luxury of just being a kid.
Through my reminiscing, I thought about the things that I missed the most about being young, and if I could, would take back:
Friendships
I have found the best friends I could through St. Bonaventure University, and I wouldn’t trade having them in my life for anything. But I still find myself missing the friendship dynamics of a child.
Now that I am a young adult, the dynamic of a friendship has changed completely. Making friends at this age isn’t as easy as it is for a child, and developing a meaningful friendship at this point in your life is hard to come by.
But the aspect of childhood friendships that I am most nostalgic for is sleepovers. I will always miss coming home from school on a Friday night with my best friend, making a dessert for the movie we picked out, and ending the night with a sleepover.
Holidays
As you get older, the excitement of the holiday season continues to fade.
Even though I will always love the Christmas season, as you get older, the holiday magic disappears, and your outlook on the holiday is never the same.
I will always be nostalgic for going to bed Christmas night, setting cookies and milk out for Santa, and going to bed excited to wake up first thing in the morning.
Dependence
Although I do like the independence of being an adult now, sometimes I still find myself wishing I could go back to when I depended solely on my parents.
Even though, as a child, I never would have thought I would feel this way, sometimes I wish I were still ten years old, asking my mom for permission to go to a friend’s house and not having the ability to make my own decisions.
With independence comes responsibility, and I am nostalgic for the days when I had no care in the world, and the most stressful thing in my life was my mom cooking something I didn’t like for dinner.
Although I know I will never be able to go back to those days of simplicity, I still find myself reminiscing about how things were when I wasn’t twenty years old, living hours away from home, and having to juggle my school life, work life, and social life all at once.