When We Were Kids

Have you ever counted the things you had lost growing up?

When we were kids, we strolled the hallways with shameless runny nose. We played nasty pranks on our parents and laughed afterwards. We pulled our mothers’ hair and broke our fathers’ bike. We refused to eat dinner and played LEGO instead. And as everybody else did, we cried and threw a tantrum when someone else received the present we wanted in our stead. When we were kids, everyone was heartless Gullivers, and we were fearless, fearless lilliputs.

And then, we grew up. We ran away from home and kissed once or twice. We skipped Christmas dinner and breathed some cigarettes. There was no Gulliver, there were no lilliputs. And we just tried our best to fit into a society we don’t belong with.

We bid farewell to adolescence, and said hello to adulthood. We pursued our dreams, and we got drowned in our illusion of grandeur. We failed, we left, and we never returned. Our dreams became our past, and we learned to accept that weren’t good enough. Thus, we sighed in defeat and returned home with our shoulders slumped to our bodies.

Soon after, we got married. And even though it felt surreal, life was perfect for a moment. We devoted ourselves to our plain jobs and our kids.

They never listened to us.

They pulled our hair and broke our treasured cars. They refused to listen to bedtime stories and instead played with their iPads. We were the evil Gullivers and they were the fearless, fearless lilliputs.

Several years bygone, and our parents passed away. Our kids didn’t even attend the funerals. They chose to spend their adolescence with their friends.

Yes.

With friends that will eventually leave them, and dreams that will disappear as quick as a drop of snow in the summer.

We tried to stop them, but we couldn’t.

Because in all honesty, we haven’t matured at all. We didn’t cry or throw any tantrum, but we became mean, bossy, and prideful, to the point that we hurt our children.
Just because they received a present we wanted in our stead.

And after they finally achieved their dreams, got married, and became parents, we would be laying in our death beds.

Wondering. Pondering.

Counting the things that we have lost.