January 18, 2012

• Throwback.

  Do you ever look back and wonder why on earth you ever liked something? 

  Take some of these things for example:

  Fun Dip. You wouldn’t find me ever eating that today. It stains your tongue, teeth, and lips some awful color that won’t go away for days. The idea is still enjoyable to me but left behind evidence isn’t. 

  Or these.

  

  Candy button things? Honestly, if you really thought of the ratio of paper and candy that you ate while consuming these things, maybe you’d think again. 

  Wasn’t the candy necklace a genius tactic? Now the kids won’t lose their candy. It’s around their neck. No mention to the excess spit and slobber that soaks into the string after you’ve sucked and bitten the candy off. MmM. 

  Or Razzles. First it’s candy. Then it’s gum. Newsflash. It’s gross as a candy and as a gum. Maybe that should be there new slogan? 

  I remember as a child loving to play in the sand. Now, I’ll sit on the sand with a beach towel between me and it, trying to enjoy the beach without the sand. Sledding and playing in the snow was the best. No care in the world. Now playing in the snow with my nephews is fun but quickly turns miserable if snow touches my face, goes down my shirt, or down my sleeve. No thanks.

  The list could continue on but I’ll spare you all further sarcasm and wittiness as I look back on my childhood. I’m sure there are things I did as a child that I still enjoy today and others would think are dumb. 

  Like Laser tag. For my 24th birthday we went. I don’t remember the last time I had done that. Despite the running around, using gear other sweaty and smelly children used, something that would normally kind of gross me out, you simply forget because it was fun. For the most part, it’s a choice to look past those things. Sometimes it refreshing to revert back to childhood like that. Ooh or Koala Bears - I will always love those things. Probably because it doesn’t make my neck sticky, I’m not eating paper, and doesn’t turn my lips weird colors.

  I digress. 

  There’s something about looking back at yourself. For me, a child with crooked, overlapped teeth growing every which direction, one massive brow, a mullet and yet smiling from ear to ear like I had no care in the world. 

  

  Not that I wish to be that. More so look like that – definitely not cute. But there’s something to looking into the eyes of that person and remembering the innocence you once possessed. We lose that not necessarily because of something we do, it’s just part of growing up. As a child, I ate anything despite what it did to my teeth or lips or played in the sand so much it took days to get sand out of crevices of my body (not that I cared or even really noticed). Times have changed. And preferences have changed. Which isn’t all bad.

  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

  But that little kid is still there to an extent. I see spurts of her every-so-often and I’m ok with it. Too often I think we try to hide that child that’s fighting to see the surface. I say, embrace it – not all childish things need to be left behind. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need to mature and grow – it’s just as necessary to me, as not completely disregarding the younger version of you. Your younger self can teach you lessons throughout your life, if you let them.

  That’s all for this edition of random things whirling around in my mind. 

  • 9:49 pm
  • 2 Comments