“We never really grow up. We just learn how to act in public.”
Don’t know where I first read that quote, but it’s incredibly true. Somewhere along the way, I realized that all of the adults I’ve encountered are just kids inside big bodies. They might pretend to be mature now and then, or suppress their childlike instincts, but there’s still a kid in there somewhere.
- Their childhood hurts are there, driving the ways they cope as an adult.
- Their childhood fantasies are there, driving their dreams and disappointments.
- Their childhood joys are there, driving their sources of happiness now.
- Their childhood training is there, driving their manners and public behavior.
- Their childhood family is there, driving their quirks, customs, and habits.
- Their childhood relationships are there, driving the way they communicate.
- Their childhood education is there, driving their occupation and interests.
- Their childhood memories are there, making them essentially everything they are today.
Childhood isn’t just a chapter closed, a prologue to the real story of your life. It’s the story itself, the part where the deepest conflicts, climaxes, and character development all happens. It’s the most interesting, formative, and change-filled, page turner you’ll ever read.
Don’t bury your childhood on a dusty shelf. Open the pages of your memory and live the adventure again. Awakening the child inside you just might make you a more complete adult.
1 comment:
This is so true. I think it may be one reason parents sometimes have trouble seeing our children as adults when they first enter young adulthood. They are still in many ways those little boys and girls we knew, even if they don't see it.
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