Being a kid

This morning I heard a pop song on the radio, the kind that has a pleasant tune but generally gets under my skin. I was thinking about how as a kid, that pleasant tune would be enough to make me really happy. I used to listen to a lot of radio when I was a child, and happy-sounding songs always lifted my spirits. It was that simple.

I got to thinking about all the ways that life was simpler as a kid. In most ways, I feel like I'm fundamentally the same person I was back then. I mean, the same soul, the same history, the same identity. So where along the line did I turn into an adult, and what makes it so hard now to adopt that light-hearted childlike attitude?

Here's a brief list I came up with of things that I was simply not aware of as a kid:
- Where gas comes from, and its association with violence around the world.
- Other kids in other homes being hurt and abused.
- Foreign policy that could potentially lead to war.
- Jobs that don't make you happy but pay the bills
- Heartbreak
- The finality that comes with death
- Not being able to have it all; having to choose between dreams, hopes.
- The speed with which a year passes
- The responsibility of privilege
- Borders
- Poverty
- "Life isn't fair" meaning more than just that my brother got his way over me.