Driving in the Childhood

One night while waiting for friends, you decide to take a drive around your childhood neighbor. It's late at night, and there may not be much to remember in the darkness. But you cruise the streets nonetheless.

You pass the sports fields, remembering the first of your practices playing soccer one winter. Think about the times you were able to play wing forward, the position absolutely all kids wanted to play because it gave the opportunity to score a goal. Hell, scoring goals was the purpose of kicking the soccer ball as a child. You wanted to showcase the little talent you have at the age of eight. It was having fun during the game, and the almighty snacks afterwards; don't ever forget the orange slices, even at halftime. And when you think the fun of the soccer season was going to be forgotten, here comes little league baseball. Whether you become a high school basketball, football, baseball, or track star, you will always remember the years you played little league baseball with your childhood friends. Where the innocence was at best, and players didn't care if they are making the millions of dollars, or hoping to be selected to the All Star game, or win MVP. You wanted to go out there at 9:00 A.M. on a Saturday, and play your heart out for a crowd of maybe twenty. The game was exactly what it was when you were eight years old….a game. A game kids play and adults take advantage of. Yeah…the sports fields.

You drive up the short hill to your elementary school and you already can feel the tanbark burning and scratching your feet. Running around the playground while smelling the dew from the morning grass fifteen minutes before the day started in 2nd Grade. Then when that fateful bell rings, you scurry to your classroom and sit at your desk. It was all about the activities, the rewards, the fun of learning math. Fun learning math…admit it, it once was fun. And then recess finally came and you hurried out to the field and played the soccer game with all the other grades, not forgetting the fun you had the Sunday before in a real game. However on this particular day, you're given your report card. Ouch, not the kind of grades your parents expected you to get. You walk back down the hill worried and scared, knowing your fun is going to be taken away for a few weeks, maybe even a month! The walk home appears to be forever and suddenly you have to use the bathroom. You want to run home, but the punishment is deterrence enough for you to settle a wet pants. Unfortunately, you get to your home and suddenly you realized something important…the parents won't be home for another 2-3 hours! You toss your back pack and run back outside. It's playing outside in these few hours that make the sweetness of being a kid the more awesome, because in 3 hours your ass gets tattooed. Good old school days.

Another hill approaches, and you drive through it, going on streets you haven't been on in probably ten years, yet you remember it like remembering to take a shower in the morning. You find another hill and then quickly come down, and you realize you just drove the path of your Halloween route, dressed up in a silly superhero costume, or the rare costume everyone neglected to remember to where. Furthermore, today kids can purchase a Halloween Treat bag of whatever popular design is available, but you see yourself with your friends holding onto the pillow case of your biggest pillow. You cling onto to the pillow case for dear life, not because it holds pounds of candy, but because it's the only pillow case you have for your pillows. The bag gets heavy and you retreat back home. Your parents are surprised to have so much candy from your round trips, but you're not done with the night. Unload that candy and head back out. There are other neighborhoods left to explore and it's still early in the night. The next day is Saturday anyway! No school, a rare night where you can stay up late as you'd like. Trick or treating…

Alright, you have five minutes to regroup with your friends. Look at what you have. You desired the day you finally get your Driver's License; you have it and now it seems more like a burden. You have a car. We all wanted a car, but now you have to pay for gas and the repairs whenever your car breaks down. You look at your job and how you need it to survive. Remember those days when you said you wanted to make money and buy your own things than to play sports or attend school functions? Life was simpler back then. The truth was you just wanted to live life. It almost feels like alternate realities. As a kid you wanted to play sports to get away from school; you play sports today to get away from life. You took the bus because all your friends are on and you have twenty minutes of free fun; you take the bus today because you can't afford to repair your car. Back then you wanted to run faster than a girl; today you wonder if will ever be loved by a girl. If only we can be as happy as when we were kids.

But the friends you are with are not the ones you had when at eight years old. These friends have a different perception of their childhood, and they help you see something. Perhaps…smiling today may be just a simple recollection of the memories that did make you smile.