By Bobby Rehm –
It’s amazing how a nice spring afternoon and a relaxing evening can make your mind wander. A walk around the place you grew up at can invoke a great deal of thought. I never realized this until the other day. Life goes by very fast, especially childhood. Pretty soon I’ll be heading off to college and I find myself wondering, where did all the time go? As the sky turned orange and the day came to an end, nostalgia sank into every thought I had.
Peering over to my neighbor’s old house, distant memories flooded my brain. He was older than me by about three years, but I didn’t care, he was a great friend. Growing up he was the only neighbor I had, and I looked up to him. We played outside, stayed up late, and enjoyed video games, things you would expect from two boys growing up. Soon though, I found our age difference had caught up with us. By now it’s hitting me like it was yesterday.
He entered high school and I suddenly became disposable. A girlfriend, grades and whatever else you did in high school changed his priorities. Before I knew it, he was gone. I wasn’t even in middle school yet and I suddenly didn’t have one of my best friends. Sure we stay in touch now, but things are just not the same. The great memories are still there of course, but I don’t think a game of tag will happen anytime soon.
I found myself dealing with this my entire childhood. When you’re a kid you live in the moment, but when you grow up, things change a little bit. A night of hanging out with your cousins, becomes a night trying to complete another research paper. A day at the pool turns into a day of arguing with your significant other. Like my neighbor, your priorities change. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself missing all the things you took for granted.
Adults preach all the time that you should enjoy being a kid while you can, because it goes by fast. Although I am by no means old, I still wish I could go back to those cool summer nights and be a kid again. Simple thoughts, simple needs and simple pleasures. So to the kids out there that who want to be older, it’s not half as fun as it seems.