Ask yourself: when was the last time you felt free? Like, really free. Freedom which feels like jumping in puddles, riding a bike for the first time, or making mud cakes with rollie pollies. I often think about where this feeling of freedom came from, and I always think back to when I was a kid.
My family has always been a party family, and even though I now fall into the age group where I can sit with the adults, I always find myself with the younger kids. It’s not only me, my father chooses to spend his time with the kids rather than the adults as well. He taught me that you can learn the most from kids about how to live life with pure happiness, as they can teach us what it means to be truly free.
I recall a time I met this kid at one of these parties who talked about blueberries for hours. The sweet ones, the mushy ones, the tart ones, the just right ones, and his favorite, a certain type of blueberry he had on a road trip to Oregon. He rambled his words with immense excitement, almost seeming to be out of breath. The boy’s eyes sparkled because of how happy he was to think and talk about something he loves: those darn blueberries. I learned from this blueberry boy that it is a joy and a privilege to be excited about – not just the blueberries – but life itself.
At another one of these parties, I recall watching my father escape superficial small talk with the adults to engage in (important, as he calls it) conversation with a girl who was explaining the in-depth plot of each Harry Potter book to him. She was six and bursting with life. I watched the girl grin widely as she entertained me with all her ideas on why Hermione should have ended up with Harry and why she is a Hufflepuff and so forth. I realized that she reminded me of myself when I was younger.
As I watched her, I noticed the hair on her arm, something she hasn’t noticed yet and I noticed her bushy eyebrows, something she doesn’t care about yet. I prayed that it would always stay that way, but grimly I thought about how one day she’ll forget about what she loves and care more about her body, how she dresses, how she presents herself, how she speaks and how people see her. I thought about how her childhood joy, which is plastered all over her face now, could easily fade away. I worry that is what happens everywhere now, people have become intensely conscious of being someone else, something else, that they forget who they really are at heart.
Implement a little bit of childhood joy into your everyday life, I say alongside my father. Talk about something you love shamelessly for hours. Dance and sing even if you aren’t good at it, because that’s what a kid would do. Don’t be afraid to come off as too much, too annoying. Come off as exactly what you want to be: strong, confident, humorous, loud. Stay authentic to the kid who you once were, the same kid who is still within you and don’t allow the world to confine you to be something else.
