by Devina

1. Nap Time

Where did you go? I don’t remember taking naps after puberty ruined my life. If anything, I remember staying up until morning to study for exams, practicing piano for hours just for the sake of some medal, and reading novels until I fell asleep.

Also didn’t help that when I was younger and had nap time, I refused to sleep. What the hell was wrong with me?

And now that I’m an adult, I want that. I miss those days when I was told that I had to take a nap, and instead of sleeping, I stayed awake, thinking of the many reasons to why I had to be napping.

Yeah, why? Why, adult me?

Sometimes children can be so slow.

2. Cool Fashion

Shoes that go bling bling. Ridiculous outfits. A huge monkey face on your sweater. Cute hats.

Things we’re kinda embarrassed to wear now because we’re adults. Seriously.

If we wear them now, we’re the joke wherever we go. And it’s sad. If only we were little and adorable again, this fashion disaster would be a cool runway show. We’d be the cute ones, not the weird ones.

But well, we grew up and apparently, became boring and bland. Like, adults.

3. Playground

The swings. The slides. I miss them.

I don’t know what on earth was wrong with me when I was a kid. But then again, I’d always been a nerd. Not exactly the type who’d go to the playground, but library instead.

Thankfully, in high school, there was a mini playground for the students. And the stuff there were for adults, so we could play without breaking anything. Phew.

4. Simple Cartoon Shows

I was watching a drama the other day when it hit me that, “I wasn’t always watching stuff like this before.” So I turned it off and went to Kim Possible. Last month, I was on Pokemon marathon, and when nobody was around, Veggie Tales.

I remember my sister telling me that, “You know nobody your age is watching these stuff, right?”

But you know what, Power Puff Girls is still one of the best. Ever.

Cartoons are awesome. Sometimes, even much better than real life actors on some soap opera.

5. Lunchbox prepared by Mom

Sometimes my mom would leave a note, and it was nice. One of my best friends in middle school used to get notes from her mom too. She’d open up her lunchbox and go, “Aww, thanks, Mom.”

I mean, hey, we’re kids. We love our moms. Moms love us. It’s great.

Nowadays, I prepare my own lunchbox. But then, it happens rarely. We just eat out, order a takeout, or skip lunch.

6. Silly games with friends

Because of course when we had to study to get into a good high school, and later on college, and then grad school, and so on, we would not have time to play tag. We’d be studying during our break, finishing up homework, working on projects, working out, or doing some club activities and rehearsals.

No more running around the school ground. No more food fight. None.

7. Imaginary friends

Back then it was cute. Considered normal, even.

Now that we’re adults, we’d be diagnosed with mental disorders. Imaginary friends are only cute when we’re children. Which is unfair, by the way, because I would love to have one.

Uhm, considering how I’m an adult, I take that back.

8. Kids Menu

Sometimes, I look at the Kids Menu and wonder why on earth do they look so much better than what I’m about to have?

Sometimes restaurants are being so nice to kids that they put ten different things on a kid’s plate. Don’t forget the snacks and the juice or milk. And toys. McDonald’s Happy Meal toys.

And they’re even called happy meals. Happy!

9. Insane metabolism

I grew up in a family that loves to eat. Our love for food defies gravity. We live to eat, basically.

And it was nice when I was a kid, of course, eating tons and not gaining weight. A little bit of sports and I was good. I was fit, despite eating like a pig.

Now, metabolism has slowed down. I am still fit, but I can feel some squishy fats when I overeat for a couple of weeks or so. And it’s to me, still a new thing.

It’s the “This never happened to me before!” but well, now it does. Age, damn.

10. Our Own World

When we were kids, we had our own world. That which was separated from the adults. And sadly, as we grew older, we got more and more things to do and to take care of that we could no longer stay in that world.

And I miss it. I miss watching a dragon and play Xena the warrior princess in the playground. I miss pretending to be on a ship, and I was the captain. I miss the world of imagination, which is strange when we carry it onwards to adulthood.