Childhood is innocence. It is basic questions and ideals. No worries or stress. It is being excited to go to school, see your friends and play tag on the playground. It is making up stories that involve wild adventures, talking animals and mystical creatures.
A mother's warm embrace. A bedtime story. A birthday party with face painting, chocolate cake, and your entire class. Bright colorful balloons, soft stuffed animals, trips to the Zoo, a lollipop the size of you head, lavender bows tied to the end of your braids and white socks with frills along the rim.
Pain and sadness came in short bursts - a fall that scraped up your knee, a friend's mean comment - quickly forgotten or forgiven. Everything could be wiped away with a princess bandaid, a hug and an apology. Everyday was a clean slate, a new beginning.
Pain and sadness came in short bursts - a fall that scraped up your knee, a friend's mean comment - quickly forgotten or forgiven. Everything could be wiped away with a princess bandaid, a hug and an apology. Everyday was a clean slate, a new beginning.
The years blur together, a flip book of love, happiness and excitement. Oh to be a kid again, living through a filter of innocence, a protection against the outside world. Youth slowly fades, memories blend, time moves on. Nothing ever lasts.
Slightly depressing, but I love how you take some very detailed things and use them to paint a picture of childhood, like the frilly socks and princess band-aids. I like the use of the term "a flip book of love, happiness and excitement." The last sentence is a bit jarring though, would have liked to see more elaboration!
ReplyDeleteI really like that though this is written as prose, it almost sounds like poetry. It's just a ton of imagery and you really did give this a "flip-book" feel. The feeling of missing the ease of childhood is one I've actually been having a lot lately so I really like your post! I wonder what types of things you would include if you wrote it from the opposite perspective: wanting to grow up!
ReplyDeleteI love the imagery you put into this post. It almost pulls me back into my own childhood. I actually enjoyed the fact that you were so specific with the details of childhood but at the end, give a sort of vague fade out as if bringing a person back from what they want to remember back to reality which some people wish to escape from.
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