By Angelica Recierdo, News Staff

Their footsteps are always a little unsure or hurried, like they’re not quite accustomed to the wonder of kinesiology or even that their bodies can produce any movement they wish. They are composed of excess adipose tissue, a rapidly growing skeleton and hard-working neurons. Sporting paint blotches and cheesy fingers, they are the adventurous ones in this world, the ones that are unabashedly themselves, whether that is in princess form or with the likes of superheroes. They sleep with teeth under their pillow, a worn-out stuffed animal in a chokehold embrace and stardust in their eyes.

There is no shortage of energy, giggles or juice boxes. Priorities like paying bills and finding a job are alien concepts when today’s main goal is, “can I beat my record of how fast I go down the slide?” Common worries span from recovering from a bruise to wondering what snacks they can trade at lunch. They need neither planes nor trains when pumping their feet and giving a good push can get their swings so high they see the rooftop of their elementary school. While adults may need to travel to see with new eyes, children get the same effect from taking apart toys and assembling them differently. While we struggle to connect in a digitally isolating age, two first-graders grab hands during recess and become instant best friends over a game of tag.

Every new article about this and that study adds up to one loaded but enlightening statement: “Don’t lose your inner child.” There’s no face cream or diet that can make you laugh as hard as you did that one time on a roller coaster, so much that soda squirted out of your nose. It is rare to find another friendship as genuine and networking-free than the girl you were lunch helpers with in fourth grade. Maybe a few more times in your life you’ll feel butterflies like you did when you had your first crush. Maybe all of these things we strive to master as an adult – love, security, fulfillment – are just a matter of looking back to see how we achieved those things as our younger self and examining what changed. What did we trade at each checkpoint of “growing up”? Was it our imagination for a graduation cap? Or was it integrity for inclusion? Or was it happiness for uniformity?

Probably until the age of 10 or 11, everything about life is large. Aspirations are literally out of this world for some. They are the kind of dreams that you re-visit when you’re in college struggling to remember what it is exactly that you love. They are found at the bottom of cardboard boxes or bins marked “first grade, second grade and third grade.” You can also search for them in between the lines of your old teachers’ yearbook signings full of wisdom. You wore these dreams as karate uniforms and ballet shoes, and you held them in your hands as paintbrushes and saxophones. Why did you put them away? Perhaps it was because the state school gave more scholarship money. Or maybe all the talk about the economy made you think again. Maybe your mom and dad gave you that tight-lipped look of disapproval. Whatever the reason, you make the sacrifice along with your friends almost like a rite of passage into a world of Starbucks and ID badges.

So then a population of dichotomous adults has grown up. They include the accountant who dances, the nurse who writes, the engineer who loves to play guitar. No matter how far off the path you got from where you wanted to start, go back. Go back a little every day to learn about your passion again. Relive it in small bursts so that when you finally meet yourself again, it’s an explosion. Acquaint yourself again with the girl who was a champion on the monkey bars or the boy who built castles out of Legos. That spirit is what lights up eyes that light up people that light up rooms that light up the world.

-Angelica Recierdo can be reached at [email protected].