So the past couple of days I had a bit of a change and actually put my computer down and did something productive! With my best friend, Isabel, we helped out with the arts and crafts station at a local vacation bible school day camp. Being the couch potato sleep lover I am, it was a big pain to get up early in the morning. Getting up at 6:45am is not my forte, especially during summer break. I also might admit, my laptop is well loved and a part of me questioned if I really wanted to part with it for a few days. I know! It's bad! But boy was I mistaken because during this time, I had a good life check with how I wanted to play out my life as a teenager.

We have a nice group of friends we made through the years when we ourselves participated in the camp as children. Only this year we were too old to be participants and decided to help out. Since the camp was only until noon, all of us would go to one of our friend's houses and play there. And yes, I did say play, and I am not afraid to say I play like a child I am no longer considered to be. I am not afraid to say these people who are not even in high school yet are my friends, because they are, and not only am I friends with them, but I have Nerf gun wars with them and I myself pretend I am actually in war.

That was the first time I played an imaginary role play game in quite awhile. And with this experience being with all my younger friends, I realized how much I missed being a kid. When I was their age I was crushing on boys, and hanging out with people who acted much older than they are; swearing every other word and thinking of every innuendo possible. Not to mention how often we were all home alone and how out of hand it always became, and how uncomfortable I would feel. I did not like the environment I was in and I lost my sense of creativity that an innocent child had. My imagination turned from living in a cabin in the woods during World War II, to practically no imagination at all. Daydreaming of boys is understandable though, its the hormones taking over, but I do miss the days where I wouldn't be always on my computer and instead would be creating endless amounts of role play games with my friends.

It really got to me, how this generation is focused on being someone way older than they really are. And unfortunately, it seems that acting older than your true age is what many people decide to do to in order to be so called "accepted" in the higher areas of the high school hierarchy. Teens my age, maybe even younger, drink and smoke and have sex. Having a boyfriend is a must, swearing and dirty jokes is mandatory in conversations, girls should be showing as much skin as possible in their everyday outfits. I am not at all like this, and I don't want to be like this until I'm at least out of high school and hopefully well into collage, and even then I won't be doing anything that isn't necessary or out of hand. Sometimes I wish I was homeschooled, like some of my Nerf gun war friends, because you don't have to act older to be accepted. These kids are cherishing their childhood to the final drop, and I gratefully admire them for that.

I do still have time to take back some of my childhood, I mean I'm not that old! But it's harder now. Once school comes around, it takes over your life, and there's never any time to be a kid again. But I will keep in mind that I am in no rush whatsoever to grow up, I've got time for that later on. Hope this inspired at least one person to look on life like how I do now.