Childhood

Childhood

 

By John W. Vander Velden

 

If there is one thing that all adults share, it is childhood.  Not that my childhood was just like yours or that yours was like anyone else’s. Childhood isn’t just a title hung on a particular set of years, it is all the experiences of our youth.  We share the fact that we grew up…or at least I hope we have grown up.  We share the process, not the things that occurred to us as we did so.  We all share the broader concept of what childhood was…and is.  A time when we learned so much about the life we live. 

For me, like most, those years, which now live in my memory, were a time filled with joy, heartache, and were mostly what we would call the dull ordinary days between.  But each day, whether I recognized it or not contained lessons just for me.   You see that is what we share.  Not the thousands of experiences that was our individual childhood but that we, each of us, had experiences, faced lessons, many hard learned, and grew.  So when we look back, and not all do, we should do so objectively. That isn’t easy, as we focus on good times or bad…those days we would wish to relive…others we had hoped to forget.  But with the attitude that each moment is a learning experience, a step toward a new place, maybe we can understand ourselves better.  

Childhood is the past. It is something in each of our pasts.  But though the past holds lessons learned, we are not bound prisoner by it.  Learn and go forward.  Learn and grow.  Learn and when it is wise to do so, change.

(282 Words)   6-24-2017