Kids.

Control yourself. Take only what you need from it.

Nostalgia sneaks up on each of us, in various ways. In some manner or another, we each yearn for what has been and can no longer be. In the past couple of years, I have indulged in it quite blatantly. Today I received a package in the mail--a twin bed sheet set from the mid or late 80s. I became curious one day and just looked to see if I could actually find it--the pillow case I clung to as a child. I found one on eBay (no surprise) in GREAT condition! Better still, it was the entire sheet set, and very cheap. I opened the box as soon as I got home and was just...happy to see it again. Its funny...as a kid I loved the HELL out of whatever pillow was in that case...and I never realized that until I was much older.

This isn't the only time I have made purchases based on childhood possessions. I bought a Popple a few years ago--the exact same style of the one I had as a kid. It was my teddy bear--the one toy I actually remember dragging around with me when my head was hardly above the ground.

I don't know what it is...I'm only 25! I feel like my childhood was ages ago. I barely remember much of it. Though a lot of it was painful and my family was unlucky, I'm strong enough to face it now...which may explain why recently I have been remembering things I had forgotten. I remember all the things I never saw in real life as a kid (but have NOW!) which includes: a rubber ducky--actually IN the bath tub, a pig-shaped piggy bank, a tea kettle, a sewing machine...just like, random stuff that tv families had, but made no sense for MY family to have.

I plan to keep the sheet set I bought for my kid to use...whenever the hell that may be. 10-15 years from now? I think it would be...special.

I suppose a big part of being a kid is seeing the world how it really is...fresh, new, and confusing. How does one kid grow up completely pessimistic about his future, and another the polar opposite? I see kids today and I sometimes miss what the have. Children accept truths that we can't. It's kind of beautiful.

Now don't trip...I'm no Michael Jackson (God rest him)...but...it makes me feel lucky that I can relate to them somehow.

So...for what it is worth, don't be afraid to embrace a little more of your childhood. Maybe not by going out and buying items from your youth...but perhaps by remembering how goofy you were, or how scared...or how precious you actually were--perhaps that can change the way you feel about who you are right now. We were all given the same set of tools. Use them to build up whatever your heart wants.