A child in us.

 “The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children. ”
― Jim Henson

Image does not belong to me

A certain old man told me that he wished he could go back to his childhood. He said things were simpler and more fun. After a few days, I found the same man helping his granddaughter make a rather cool paper boat. Not your simple ones, something really extravagant, the boat had seats and things. (I must ask him to teach me how to do it) Seeing him make the boat, excited as his fragile old hands worked the small piece of paper I wanted to tell him his childhood never left him. It’s in that memory of how to fold the paper, it’s in the delight that shown in his eyes, the excitement in the little girl who watched him make it. 

I turn 20 next year and I still watch Baby Loony Toons or Bob the Builder whenever it shows on TV. I watch it with the same interest I watch a House episode. Watching those kid’s show tells me I’m feeding the child in me, I’m giving it the imagination, the wonder cartoons and like give us.

We need that child. It the only thing that can manage to show us the funny side of the world. The only thing that can give us a different perspective. My English teacher once during class said that everyone grows up and forgets the child, maybe except writers. Since then I’ve embraced what she said and never forgotten to keep the child alive. It is an identity in my mind that makes any serious situation comical, and yet provide solutions no grown up man can come up with. It makes me curious, it makes me want to touch everything new. People frown upon it, who cares? 

It is okay to feel nostalgic about our childhood, but it is never lost. It is there in our mind, in the way we have come to think, and sometimes it even comes out and flows through our action. 

So if someone points to you and says that the way you are doing something is not how a grown up does, be glad the that the maturity you have gained over the years has not destroyed the innocence of the child you once were.  It’s okay to have imaginary friends, it’s ok to jump up and down your bed, it’s definitely ok to show your happiness and excitement in the most childlike manner. It makes things beautiful. Love your inner child. If it helps you, why worry what the world thinks of it?

(P.S: Thank you to all those amazing people who left my poem a vote!)