Childhood's end

A few days ago, I got to meet up an old friend who I rarely see these days. Such moments, of course, entail much catching up even if you get to email one another occasionally. Tales of office activities amidst chats of personal lives, unending comments on various mundane issues and talks of current career plans - they won't run dry if you haven't seen each other for a while.

Even if it were mostly just for exchanging pleasantries, our conversations made me notice that my friends and I have changed. We are no longer the brats we used to be, no longer caring about how our professors will grade our report, nor how we will be able to cheat in the next exam (owkay, we never did discuss how to cheat in exams, it's just an exaggeration) :P

Little did I realize that while the days since we parted ways after the board exams pass by slowly, each of us has matured in our own special ways. Perhaps these changes are so subtle, or they may be plainly visible. Nonetheless, the fact remains: we are no longer kids.

Immediately after our meeting (and with the fact that we are no longer kids in mind), I journeyed on for I was supposed to be on-duty a few hours later. So there I was aboard a bus en route to teh ACeS, that I got to ruminate on that special aspect of human existence: CHILDHOOD. As the bus was slowly passing by villages after villages, towns after towns, the sight of kids of various ages was endless.Childhood's end doesn't really entail, nor does it require, the loss of innocence

Looking upon the kids' faces, reading their soul's tales through their eyes, I realized that childhood's end doesn't really entail, nor does it require, the loss of innocence. Kids grow up and become adults even while you keep your eyes on them. And no, I'm not really talking about age here, coz some of the major essences of adulthood are not usually a function of time.

To put it succinctly, kids rely on adults for their needs, adults rely on God and themselves for their daily bread. The moment young ones start to think for themselves and behave like real adults, they are already young adults. Conversely, if old people still do not know how to fend for themselves, they're nothing but overgrown children.

Anyway, I do believe that childhood's end should never be accelerated, nor should it come in the wrong time. Kids deserve a happy childhood, and the adults are the ones who should make sure they do.