How often do you find yourself talking about the days when you were in elementary school or even the beginning years of middle school? It’s because those were the days in which you’d move on to the next grade with all D’s, where you didn’t have to worry about tests scores to get into college, and when summer truly meant that you didn’t have anything to do. Why didn’t we appreciate our lives more back then?
I remember in elementary school, my parents paid for everything. I had an N64, played all the sports, and hung out with my friends every weekend. Those were the days where you could wake up and watch Saturday morning cartoons, where the worst part of your day was having a dentist appointment, and where where a thing called “recess” existed. Why didn’t we ever take a break from our lives and say “you know what? Our lives are the shit right now!” I mean seriously, we didn’t have to work, we didn’t have to worry about complicated relationships (given that the parents had to drive you everywhere), we didn’t have to think about taxes or the economy, and we didn’t have to think about furthering our education. Now how does it look?
Summer no longer means summer… it means a large amount of free time to take summer school, take up a job, or do something productive. If you want to buy something such as an Xbox or even food, you have to work for it. Saturday morning cartoons no longer exist because all you want to do is sleep in since you have to wake up early everymorning except for Saturday. Sure we didn’t have as much freedom, but at that age, we didn’t need any, and even if we did, we wouldn’t know what to do with all of it.
The reason I’m writing this is because I realized that we look back at our lives and think how great we had it back then, almost 10 years ago. Looking forward 10 years into the future, I’ll be in my 30’s, and I’ll probably look back at my life and say “wow, I had it so good back then.” I mean, college is a time to have fun and find yourself. It’s a time to develop lasting relationships, find your interests, your path for your career, and be the person you want to be. Sure we have to work, but we still have freedom. So the next time you think about how much you miss being younger, realize that these times in your life only come once, so make the most out of it.
