Just yesterday I was small talking with a colleague and she mentioned the good old days. The days when she was young. Days in which her young self would go buy items from the grocer’s alone. Nowadays, she exclaimed, it’s not safe. Too much harassment, too many cars, and a whole list of other reasons.
Talking about my 31-year-old myself, young me would bike at night, all the time, driving my mother dead worried. As a thirteen year old I also started catching the bus to go to my athletics sessions. All this unsupervised, free from watchfully eyes, on my own. I think the sense of liberty and responsibility did change my view on life, and is healthy for every kid.
nostalgia (noun):
a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.
This longing nostalgic tone is ever-present in our day-to-day talk. Yet, we should thread carefully on these idealisations. We forget the limitations our previous generations had when growing up. The eldest of kids forced to take care of the younger ones, few job opportunities, little to nowhere to go or do in the weekends and the list can go on for ages. One can argue that it was a simpler life, but it was confined to our small island. Our kids will see horizons few of us had the pleasure to lay eye on.
I won’t even go into the thousands of social, medical and scientific advancements we take for granted.
In a way I do feel bad for children growing up today, but for different reasons. My kids will face more global warming and men’s greed side effects, probably have to rent house that they will never own and be void of many green spots in our little island.
With time everything changes, and there is no stopping it. Let’s only hope time changes things for the better.
Featured photo: Edson Chilundo
