Yesterday a group of us celebrated Edward's birthday. Edward had mentioned before how during his younger days birthdays were just a simple celebrations and with each passing year, bit by bit it did not seem as big a deal until birthdays were just ordinary days. Hopefully this year we had made him feel special enough to rekindle his interest in his own birthdays.
It is same situation for many people. When we were young, we would get very excited during festivities like birthdays and Christmas, many times thinking of fun and food, but as we grow older, the enthusiasm just fizzles. We used to get fascinated by a lot of things like wondering how aeroplanes can fly, how big buildings were constructed, how people can appear on televisions and so on, but now we simply regard them as normal; knowing they exist but hardly even acknowledging them. Perhaps this is what it is like to grow into adulthood.
I had reminisced younger days while chatting with a primary school classmate some time back. If we had went back to our playful years, we would probably be chided for being childish. Back then, simple gifts like sweets and even pencils would be a child's delight but I suppose as people grow up, so do their expectations. I guess it is the society's definition of adults and these expectations that somehow murdered our child-like innocence.
It scares me to think how "adult" many of us have become. The world of an adult is one fraught with responsibilities, stress, miseries and disappointments. In contrast, the world of a child is one which is much simpler, care-free and happy. Yet we all have to grow up some time but I guess we would all be a little happier if we could keep a small part of being a kid in us.
2 comments:
I remember when I was young i could tell you my age at the drop of a hat. if there was one 'most important' question you could ever ask me, it would be, 'how old are you?' I'd spend my time counting down the days until my next birthday. and when my brother was born, and people would ask us how old both of us were, I would feel so indignant. To me, it was obvious that he was 4. i mean, couldn't they tell??? and i'd mentally scoff at them when they assumed otherwise.
These days I'm lucky if I can remember my age. and that's not really saying much considering I'm not exactly 'old'. but it just seems that age has stopped being such a big factor for me. In fact, most of the time I have to struggle to remember what age I am. Other times I have to mentally count and recheck before I can confirm. It's kinda sad in its own way...
When we were younger, we couldn't wait to grow up but now that we're older, we sometimes miss our younger days.
Growing older is a one-way street and we can only grow older not younger. Our lives get more and more complicated as we age, and sometimes we begin to lose ourselves. That's a sad fact.
However, perhaps if we looked hard enough, we can still find a bit of child in all of us- the youthful innocence and energy.
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