Child at Heart

I return to my blog after a shortish long period of inactivity to discuss an important matter regarding personal happiness and health.

My senior year, I had a fantastic Outdoor Adventure teacher, Mr. Patton, who stressed the importance of remaining childlike. Not childish, but childlike. (There's a difference. One is means throwing shitty tantrums when you don't get your way, and the other is being able to enjoy yourself.)

Too often, my teacher observed, people spend time worrying about embarrassing themselves rather than having fun. Take your average group of happy kids, for example. If you give each of them a balloon, tie it to their shoes, and tell them to run away from other who are trying to pop their balloon while they simultaneously have to pop the other kids' balloons, and you'll find yourself in a room filled with the gleeful screeches of play. (Side note: I was a generally unhappy kid and would not have enjoyed the activity for reasons that remain unknown to me).

On the other hand, if you offer the same situation to adults, even high school students, they will probably accept it reluctantly. I know that our class of 17 and 18 year olds did.

I've been thinking a lot about Mr. Patton's advice after I find myself slowly facing and increasing amount of adult responsibilities. I feel weighed down, more serious. Serious is scary and boring. More frightening is the fact that I find myself succumbing to the thought that being an adult means not having all the fun you could be having.

Today at college, the school had bouncy castles and other activities set up around campus. It was the perfect reminder of my old teacher's advice. If you're with the right people, what does it matter that you look silly? You're having fun, and that is the only thing that matters. You can be an adult with serious responsibilities and still be able to enjoy yourself. Absolutely no negativity has to infect your thoughts. It only will if you let it.

Back to the class's balloon game. It took a while, but after some minutes of stumbling around quite awkwardly, we did end up enjoying ourselves. Even I did, the kid who used to worry too much about everything to ever have fun in group activities. We became less of a group of high school students and more of a group of people having fun. It was great to just let go of the stresses of school and life, even if it was just for an hour.

Everyone, even adults, deserve that break. Laughing, getting your blood pumping, acting silly. It can have a profound impact on your everyday happiness. And what's the point in anything if you're not at least enjoying yourself part of the time? Who says adults have to be boring? Certainly not me.