Growing Up to Become Children Again

When you think of childhood, it’s carefree, playful, unaware of immense stress. Even if that wasn’t your childhood, this remains to be the general concept of childhood. It’s what we all want and what a lot of us don’t want to lose. You hear it from many adults, they’ll say “feeding my inner child”. When the grownups go to playgrounds or watch animated movies or have sleepovers, their actions are seen as childish. In high school, when older kids dress up for Halloween, it’s oftentimes seen as childish. When college students get sloshed at bars or each other’s houses, they’re seen as childish. 
Basically anything fun and stupid is childish. And it’s looked down upon too often.
Why are we told to grow up? And what does that mean? If you look at movies where there’s magic involved, adult characters many a time can’t perceive it. In Narnia, the older chap was unable to through the wardrobe after getting a bit older. In Polar Express, the parents couldn’t hear the bell ring because they no longer believed in magic. In Hook, Peter was basically a dick to everyone until he rediscovered his inner child. The world that adults live in is this magic-less, uninteresting, dull world. Yet that is what was decided…by adults..for some reason. They get mad at children for trick or treating because they think once you hit twelve, you deserve to stay inside rather than gallivant into the twilight and scavenge house to house for free sustenance. Despite that being a safer alternative to going to unsupervised parties way too young and getting drunk and high, they often refuse to hand over some treats, or at least give a harsh scowl, when you and your crew of teenagers roll up to the door all decked out in costumes you spent months planning. Then, once you’re a little bit older and ready to give up wandering neighborhoods for snacks, that’s when the partying really starts and you’re still looked down on. Whilst you’re exploring a different scene as a rowdy sixteen year old, figuring out a new side of you, the adults hold disdain towards all who participate. Getting drunk in a house with twenty people is stupid and unprofessional and a waste of time, grow up a little then go to a bar. But we all know they’d judge you then too, because that happens to all the college goers. 
Adulthood is getting drunk alone in an office within your nice house after you bottle up all your feelings and show your nuclear family that you never experience any negative emotion. This is followed by going to bed at eight pm so you can get up for your dreary office job and work nine hours for some kind of salary that will only benefit you once you retire and are too old and tired to properly enjoy yourself. Once the day is done, you go home and get drunk after dinner and do it all over again until you become bitter and angry that your life didn’t go the way you wanted, that you didn’t live your dreams and you take it out on the youths because you’re jealous. And even if being an adult is not that exact scenario, it’s still bills and payments and finances and schedules and deadlines and stress and exhaustion and frustration and chores and tasks and no breaks. Adulthood is the yang whilst childhood is the yin, but instead of living with a bit of both, we shove half of ourselves away because we delude ourselves into thinking that’s the right thing to do. We’re supposed to grow up and become serious and mature and responsible since being a child is none of that and there’s no way to live in the world without those adult qualities. 
Where we go wrong though, is assuming we must rid the one so the other may flourish. Kill the boy and return as a man. All that jazz. But..we all want to be happy..in the end. That is generally what people strive for in life, whatever version of their happiness may be, happiness is the goal. And we associate childhood with the concept of happy. Meanwhile associating the concept of adulthood with the lack of. So, to be successful in finding that happiness, should we not try to regain that same state we had as children? Should we not try and get back to the point where we didn’t have to worry about money or work or doing something we didn’t want to do? Even if it’s not in the same way, would those values not be worth aiming for? I want to be financially stable enough where I don’t panic over my bank account every few days. I want to make a living doing what I love so I feel like I’m playing and creating rather than actually working. I want to have time where I can relax and hang out with my friends and go see a movie and read a book and I want to be able to do that more than once a week. I want my worries and my stress and my misery to go away and feel again like a child when I had none of that. I think, secretly, we all want that. It’s the true form of success in my opinion because it means we got to a place of mental, physical, and spiritual peace. 
Therefore, instead of shunning children, teenagers, and barely adults for holding onto their youthful spirit for dear life, maybe we embrace it and carry it with us no matter the age. Fucking, go out there and be stupid. Dye your hair fun colors if you want. Wear wild clothing if you want. Throw a sleepover or a party if you want. Stay up till three in the morning. Drive around on a friday night blasting dumb music that makes you and your friends cackle and wheeze. Make oven smores. Dress up for Halloween. Keep your stuffed animals. Build a blanket fort. Get that tattoo or that piercing. Do something fun and ridiculous because it makes you happy. Yin and Yang balance each other, we can be carefree and responsible, foolish and intelligent, playful and mature. It is not one or the other, nor should we sacrifice either. Who we were as children makes an impact on who we are as an adult and overall we are the same human in both cases, so let us work together with our past selves and not try to forget everything the moment we hit twenty.