Let Me Be A Kid Again, No Sweats Just Sweets

May 9, 2021

(This article is inspired by @Ruffa's Childhood memories, I'm just a cool kid)

Perhaps, many of us want to turn back the hands of time and be a kid again. Those times were our job was only to sleep, to play, to eat, and to be a naughty kid. Sometimes we wished to have a time machine, where we can travel to the past and bring back the good old days. We are also wishing to go back to the past to correct the mistakes we have done, and follow the right path going back to the present time. How we wish to have that, but of course, it only happens in science-fiction movies and our dreams.

However, there is a way to bring back the past, and that is to reminisce about them as they are in our memories. Some are forgotten but some remain intact especially those sweet childhood memories - that will last forever.

Let's take a trip down memory lane..

Let me be a kid again, "no sweats just sweets." The sweats do not literally mean the sweats that come out from our body when we perspire. What I mean is "no worries," because when we were younger we can do anything, we can play for long hours. We don't need to worry about the chores, the bills, the tuition, and we don't even care if we are messy or tidy. What we cared about were the "sweets." Of course, it's the sweets from the candies we snatched from our mother's store or the sweets from the popsicle that our father bought for us as 'pasalubong (present). They are the "sweet memories" we had when we were young.

When I was a kid, I felt so happy every time our father was on duty, because finally, I can play outside with my cousins and neighbors. We have this tiny house we built from old sacks, banana leaves, and woods that were supposed to be used for cooking (traditional way), but we snatch them from our kitchen and used them to build our tiny house. It can't even be called a house, because it was just like four wood sticks at the four corners, banana leaves were hanged as the walls, and old sacks as our roof and floor mats.

We also have a world of our own when we were younger. We're like unaware of what is happening around us because what we're concerned about were our own thoughts, and just about playing. We didn't care a whit about what others will say even if we were messy and untidy. We were the captain of our ship and the master of our soul, like what I've learned from a poem in school.

When mother reprimanded us for being naughty, we just let her words go inside one ear and out the other. And have you ever had white lies before just to save our ass from getting a slash? We have this train of thought as if we were right and very bright. 🤣 But mother was smarter and don't care a whit to our lame explanations, the act of stupidity received a hard pinch on the waist. But luckily, I never received a slash from her.

Every time it rains, we were like people from a desert island who are waiting for the rain to wet their dry lips, and water their dehydrating body system. It was like a blessing to us, not because we have water scarcity, but because we can go out to play in the rain, splashing water rain to each other, saving water rain on a small pale and putting it on our head, making paper boat and floating it on the stream, spreading the arms while facing up and tasting the salty water rain. We can even stay longer until the rain stops without worrying about getting cough and cold.

Have you had a disgusting memory when you were a kid?

Have you ever tasted your booger because you've seen your friends doing it? And that running mucus from your nose? We don't even care about that, and we just wiped them using the back of our hands. And when we saw our kuya (older brother) peeing while standing, we girls did the same. But mother saw it and I just received a hard pinch on my waist because I smelt like I bath with my wee.

Have you been a Dora explorer too?

We were so curious, eager to learn new things, excited to explore every single corner of the house to discover and figure out things.

One time I poke my hand on the hole to check what's beneath the broken wall. But it got stuck and I cried out loud imagining a ghost behind pulling my hand, and when I successfully pulled it out, I got scratches on it.

One time I saw my brother climbing on our manzanitas tree. The next day when no one can see, I tried to climb but then I held on to a broken branch and fell. My back hit the ground and seemed like my heart suddenly stopped from beating and I was out of breath. My mind was asking me, "will I die now?" But that was just for a short moment. But I kept it secret to my mom as I don't wanna be scolded.

One day I saw my uncle smoking. I took out my paper, rolled it, lit it with the lighter, and copied what my uncle was doing. I thought it was fun, but I just got choked with the smoke and never tried it again.

One day I saw my friend sipping the tiny santan flower nectar. I asked her, "how does it taste?" "It is sweet, try it." Indeed it was sweet. We even made bracelets and necklaces using the santan flowers.

And one day I saw my mother washing our dirty clothes, I sat in front of her and help her washing some clothes while playing with the bubbles. Then after a few moments I gave up and told my mother, "mama it's tiring." She just laughed at me and told me to take a bath. From that day I learned how hard it is to handwash clothes, and even if I want to help my mother, I was only little and wanted to play more instead 🤣.

I have this funny memory when I was in primary one. Students like recess time, of course, who doesn't like eating and playing during recess? Our class doesn't really pay attention to our advisor because what we only want was to go out and play. One day, she said "okay class, take your set," but what we've heard was, "Okay class, take your recess." We all shouted "Yehey!!" and we're about to run outside when our teacher angrily stand up and shouted, "what are you doing? I said take your set!" When we all seated, she took out her stick and gave a hard slash on our hands. That was hurting but funny 😂.

Have you been forgetful when you were a kid?

This is embarrassing again and I was in primary three that time. One day I was in a hurry because I will be late for school. I hurriedly put on my uniform and shoes and ran to school but I felt like something was light or something was missing. During our recess time, I saw my friends playing Chinese garter. I joined them and when I jumped, my skirt flipped up and there I saw what was missing. I forgot to wear my underwear and that was too embarrassing. I pretended that nothing happens but my friends laughed at me and bullied me. Well, real friends are the real bullies. Lol.

Have you been forgetful when you were a kid?

This is embarrassing again and I was in primary three that time. One day I was in a hurry because I will be late for school. I hurriedly put on my uniform and shoes and ran to school but I felt like something was light or something was missing. During our recess time, I saw my friends playing Chinese garter. I joined them and when I jumped, my skirt flipped up and there I saw what was missing. I forgot to wear my underwear and that was too embarrassing. I pretended that nothing happens but my friends laughed at me and bullied me. Well, real friends are the real bullies. Lol.

Have you experienced having squat in front of the class because you forgot to do your homework?

Yes, I did and that was during our Math subject. I was a bit late in school so I wasn't able to copy the homework of my Math genius seatmate 🤣. The punishment was worst and embarrassing. From that moment onwards I always tried to finish all my homework at night because I don't want to get embarrassed again in front of the class.

If I will list all happy childhood memories here, it might take ages to finish.

But those happy memories decreases when I started to become a responsible daughter. Seeing my mother working hard and looking tired was heartbreaking, so at an early age, I learned how to do chores to lighten up her burdens. Every year our siblings are growing, not only by size but by numbers. Having a new baby almost every year was exhausting, can you even handle it?

But then, there was still room to enjoy my life and create happy memories, especially at school.

But why do we remember certain things but forget others? Just like computers, our memory formation involves registering data, processing and storage, and retrieval. And computers are just actually based on how our memory works. Some factors affect our minds to forget certain memory, that includes stress, painful past, and sometimes we just really choose to forget things because they are meant to be forgotten. But the unforgettable ones are the happy memories that will remain forever in our minds.

Childhood memories are truly helpful to get by tough days and make us cheerful on good days. They are like little wings that keep us running our lives smoothly. We felt like a kid again while reminiscing them, and the reason for our smiles in between our adult life.

What was/were your sweet and bitter childhood memories? Don't hesitate to share below 😊

Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there and have a blessed Sunday!

Lead image from https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/amp/how-do-you-remember-your-childhood-exploring-visual-memory-323246