Remember when you were a kid...

I went to Disneyland with my friends last September. Going to this amusement park gave me the feeling of being young; a feeling where you didn’t have to bother about being silly or you didn’t have to worry about anything else other than having fun. It felt so free just dancing on Mainstreet USA to the tunes of the band without feeling stupid and screaming at the top of your voice on Space Mountain. It didn’t matter that Haunted Mansion wasn’t scary enough for us, although this “grown-up” here still got scared by a Cast Member that jumped out from behind a booth. It wasn’t even a matter of embarrassment for my friend and I, both aged 22 by the way, to be licking lollypops the size of our faces as we walked past Cinderella’s castle to find a good place for the Parade.

As fun and enchanting as it was by day, Disneyland was even more beautiful by night. We rode the Teacups just as the lights were switched on. Riding it at night made us feel like we were the only ones present in the world at that moment, spinning in one of Mad Hatter’s teacups, with the beautiful lights swirling above and around us. The trip ended with a 45 minute wait for Big Thunder Mountain which was totally worth it. The sun had fully set by then and the breeze was much cooler. Riding in and out of the tunnels in the runaway train by night was an amazing experience, especially at the point where we reached the top of the mountain and could see the entire Park lit up.

This sudden recollection of my trip to Disney isn’t something that just popped in my head out of the blue. My first year of Masters is done and it makes me feel much older and like I have a lot of responsibilities now. Thinking about past experiences like this makes me feel like a kid again. A time when the simplest things used to make you smile, when fictional characters were your best friends and when you biggest fear was that you’d accidentally kill your Tamaguchi pet or that you’d get yet another Pikachu in your new Pokemon packet. It was a time when imagination and creativity were encouraged and when mistakes could easily be rubbed by the eraser behind your pencil. I miss being a kid. Life was simple. Fun.