The Simpler Times

  

Do you ever look back at your carefree, young days and think, “How I miss the time when I had no worries.”. Remember how you used to go to kindergarten and gained the simplest knowledge, come home and watch tv until you fell asleep on the living room couch? Well, those were the days. You naively thought that eating dark chocolate was the snap back to your reality. Now in your final stages of school, reality feels like harsh wind and it just so happens that the weather is extremely windy these days. Problems are not to be counted with fingers anymore as they extend beyond missing a ‘Winnie the Pooh’ episode.

  Remember when you used to wake up early to enjoy a hearty breakfast before going to school? You will reach school with ease, via bus, slinging a light backpack with only a few books and your lunchbox providing weight. You sit there for awhile waiting for your friends to join you eventually at the next stop. The overly perky teacher in the bus will make you sing nursery rhymes, and you will feel as though you have matured from that phase, — at only 8 years old. The little you felt that you have grown, that you have tasted all of life’s bitterness to sing a real song that is not about wheels on the bus. If only you would realise sooner what overexposure really meant.

  Life today is a total contrast to how it was before. With every tick of the clock comes another pending assignment, and it does not help when you have befriended your worst enemy, that is procrastination. Suddenly, you would give anything to bring back those nursery rhymes. But fret not, for life does not have to be this way. With good time management, you can take time to appreciate the good things in life and simply have fun again. Today’s idea of fun is a little extreme, but put that aside for a second. Go to the park or catch the sunrise by the beach; I am certain that the little girl inside your soul will be conscious again.

  Your life can still be filled with the same bright colours from your pre-school days if you have the right mindset. Avoid procrastination and get all your work done on time. So, your free time can be serene with appreciation of nature or the sound sleeping of a long but well deserved nap. I am not saying to rush through all your work at once. What I am saying is to delegate your work properly to avoid dreaded all-nighters. With balance, you may get a glimpse of the beautiful old days everyday. 

  This is how your life should be. Instead of whining and constantly looking back on the old days when you were not tied up to commitments, make time for the present so you are able to taste the exact freedom. There is no use holding on to the past when you cannot relive it. Appreciate what is around you and make every moment count.

- Written by Namrata Gopwani.