#11 Been a Kid

I've always been slightly on the uptight side. As much as I wish I wasn't, I've always been a little serious. While being serious can sometimes be a good thing, it can also be a harrowing thing. It may have helped me when I was at school, but outside of school, being serious has - many a time - prevented me from just letting loose and having fun. I can't really remember a time when I was just free or when I was just being a kid. My earliest memories were of reading books by myself, not of watching the television shows that all of my friends talk about that they remember from their childhoods or running around in the sprinklers. Kids really are the best teachers because they haven't developed bad habits, fears, or defenses that we build up over time. Now that it's taken me this long to realize that I've wasted my childhood away, I hope that I can be a kid before I have to grow up for real. I want the next couple months to be about doing things just for the fun of it - no reason necessary. Yes, I had a childhood, and yes, it was a good one, but I stopped being a kid far earlier than I should've. I'm still a kid now, so I want to stop being so serious all the time. But how am I going to do this? How can we all be kids again? Just doing the simplest, silliest of things can bring back the child in all of us. Here's a list I've compiled of ways to do so. (And I'm going to make it my mission to do these things as soon as possible.)

1. Make a funny face at a stranger. Everyone likes a funny face. You'll definitely make yourself laugh, and you may just make someone else laugh too. 

2. Go to bed early. Put down everything you're doing - that phone, that computer, that book - and just go to sleep. Kids hate bedtime, but once they're asleep, they're gone.

3. Eat ice cream for dinner. You can afford not to worry about your waistline for one night.

4. Color or draw something. Bring out one of your old coloring books if you still have them. The old ones are way better than the new ones.

5. Skip down the hallway. You may look silly when you're doing it, but the personal satisfaction you get from skipping anywhere is enough to overshadow the odd looks on everyone's faces. 

6. Have a race. (I've actually done this one before. Who am I kidding? I do this practically every day with one of my friends on our way to English class. Best. Thing. Ever.) Or, crazy idea, you could have a skipping race!

7. Set off fireworks. Let out your inner-pyromaniac! What's more fun than blowing something up and seeing pretty colors?

8. Dance to an old song in your room. Is that a boy-band song I hear?

9. Have a water balloon fight with your friends. Just make sure no one wears white.

10. Find a swing set. I think the quickest way to feel like a kid again is getting on a swing and feeling the oscillation with the wind in your hair and without a care in the world. 

Growing up can really be a scary thing, but I find comfort in the fact that you can always be a kid at heart. It is my great hope that I can feel like a kid again before I have to go off and be an adult. Every so often I fear that I'm not a fun person. Hopefully doing the things on this list can make me the fun, spontaneous person I wish to be. We can afford not to spend every waking hour being serious and uptight. Growing up doesn't mean getting boring. Besides, who wouldn't want to eat ice cream for dinner and have a water balloon fight?