Those Days

A short reflection on growing up and facing reality as I near adulthood.

My mum often says she misses how fascinated I was with everything. My brother and I used to spend our days on long autumn walks, jumping in and out of the puddles with our red and yellow Wellington boots - making a game out of how much water we could send flying into the air.

I remember the genuine thrill and excitement from those frequent rainy days - the sounds of the water sloshing, seeing my distorted reflection mirrored on the wet cobbled ground, even the damp smell from the fresh rain. Everything about everything was exhilarating. Through the eyes of a child, the world is full of wide-open doors just waiting to be explored.

There was a maze I always used to go to. My little legs were too short for me to see above the wooden posts that marked out the many twists and turns, and so I ran around for what felt like hours, searching. It was ginormous.

I have since walked past this maze, seeing how utterly tiny and boring it looks now. I see how children run around it, their excitement tugging at their cheeks as they scream with delight, probably feeling the same joy as I felt back then. I think about how one day they too will grow and walk past the maze they once loved so much to see the reality of its tiny, withering walls. They too will feel the same disappointment I do now.

Now - when I look through the eyes of an adult and have so many problems and issues that I know these children will one day know.

But for the meantime, in their huge, fascinating world: they feel invincible.

Author's Note

This is just a short piece of writing as part of my English Language AS last year. I'd love to hear what you think. :)

Reviews

[SoberBunny]

This was a great short story, one that really captured how adulthood sort of ruins everything that childhood made seem so grand. Everything is so new as a child, "Through the eyes of a child, the world is full of wide-open doors" definitely captured that invincibility aspect. And the way that nothing seems impossible before reality kicks our butts. Great work. :)

[M. George]

Thank you very much! I really appreciate it ^-^

[Abi B.]

This was really nice! I loved the part about the "tiny, withering walls", it really emphasizes how the facade of childhood can mask the harsh realities of life. I felt the invincibility aspect as well; "their excitement tugging at their cheeks as they scream with delight," is where it especially shone through for me, the idea of children playing, filled with the type of happiness that children can only feel, the type of happiness warped with innocence, that alludes them to believe that the moment they're in could last forever; that they could last forever. I think this is something we all face as we near adulthood, the crushing reality that some of the happiest moments in our lives can never perfectly be recreated because we've been exposed to what's "over the walls," so to speak. Awesome work!

[M. George]

Thank you very much for taking the time to review, I really appreciate your kind words! :)