Memories of a Childhood

As I sat down to write this post, I realized that I have never written about my childhood before. I have made over 700 posts on my blog yet I have never mentioned my childhood. Did I not have a childhood to remember or was it too boring to be ever mentioned? May be it is a just case of something that I do not recollect that often. So today I recollect some of those moments from my younger days for you.

Often I believe that I didn’t have a lengthy childhood as I was the eldest kid in the house. I believe that the time that I spent in my grandmother’s home was the only time I was a carefree and pampered child. My parents relocated to a new city in another state at the age of 8. I lost all my friends and started feeling awkward in life as a result of the move. It took a while for me to make new friends and adjust to new life. Even thought I still played with other kids, stole sugar from kitchen, hid my results from mom yet showed it to dad to get his signature when I scored less, loved watching cartoons and enjoyed childhood in other ways, somehow, it never left a mark in my memories.

When my sister was born, overnight I became older and somewhat mature. While the whole family attended to the new one, even I was drawn to her. I started paying more attention to my sister. As her elder sister it became natural for me to look after her whenever we were out. An year later when my brother came into the world, every one expected me to be the grown up kid. I was told that I had two younger siblings who would look up to me and I have to be a role model for them. I felt that I am being made responsible for things I had no idea about but I surely tried to act like a grown up and accepted them. Like all eldest kids, I too grew up fast and acted beyond my years. How I did it, I don’t know but neither have I felt odd about it, nor do I think it is wrong. Anyways, that is the story of my childhood – being both a child and grown up at same time.

By 14, I had distanced myself from playground and friends. As we moved again I became more of a loner. There were no one to hang around with any more. This is when I found books and fell in love with words. I deliberately started to ignore my friends during recess in order to read the books I got from school library. Books were my love and my salvation. By the time I finished school, I had completed entire collection of Hardy boys, famous five and revised editions of most classics. I had also read most of the magazines that came to the library. I was fat, talkative and a studious girl who rarely talked to other girls in the class. I was almost a loner during those school years even when I was the head girl and House prefect. May be this is why I do not recollect those memories often and never visited my school after I finished it. I, however, do not regret any of it. In fact, I am thrilled that during that time I found books and it earned me respect among some genuine people whose friendship has lasted all these years.

At the end of schooling, my family officially declared my childhood to be over. I had a whole life planned and laid out before me. I had to complete my studies, get a job, support the family and be a ideal lady who could be married off at the right time. What I didn’t realize at that time was that life had a second childhood planned for me too. As I grew older, the simplest of desires that I never knew existed started to crop up in my life. Desires like being carefree, being a dreamer, being innocent and having someone to care for me for a change. It was when I started working again, that I truly became a kid in my life. I realized that I am alone responsible to keep the child in me happy. I found friends who indulge and groom my childish desires. I had since then undertaken some crazy adventures which me made me carefree and enjoy life. I was also lucky to have few guardians whom I held on as I treaded unknown paths and curious alleys. I am no longer a grown up but I am the kid and I love being one.

Childhood lives on forever – some in memories, some in fantasies but for me, I got to live it again correctly when I was all grown up. So my childhood story is the one I am living right now.

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