I remember always being happy when I was a tiny human, my biggest problem was that my socks sometimes got wet in the shoes and I would be cold or that I had to go and learn letters and words, inside. I spent no time inside, I liked to play out in the nature. It didn't matter if it was winter or summer, 1 meter of snow or 30 degrees Celsius outside . I always had something to do, I always had my imaginary friends with me.
Up until I was around 6 years old, I would live at my countryside with my grandparents most of the time, no other people around, the closest living soul being 6 km away, I didn't have a lot of kids to play with, but I did not mind at all. I had my trees to climb, my sand cakes to make, my woods to explore.
I remember my grandfather always telling me that wolves ate my mom. She worked a lot and would come in the evening, I learned by this, that my grandpa had a bad sense of humor, he never came up with new jokes, and I stopped believing him very fast. I don't remember him joking around a lot, just that he loved me with everything he got. He wasn't nice to other people, but I was the special human, the only one that was there.
I remember much less of my grandma, at least the good times, she got sick very early in my life, wasn't herself anymore. But I do remember her making me potato pancakes and rabbit wool hats that were too hot even in winter, and winters were cold where I come from, she taught me how to make thread on the spinning wheel and she made amazing food, something my mom didn't learn. We would go to the forest together to pick mushrooms and berries, of course I would not pick the berries, but eat them, I had a blue mouth from the blueberries afterwards.
I was a happy kid, living in the countryside, playing with animals, climbing trees, making imaginary food, ''helping'' my oma and opap(grandma and granddad). It was a bright time. I don't remember any worries in my mind, just the couple of times when I got stung by a bee or nettle. And I was full of energy, so when it got dark I would not go to bed immediately. In the evenings I would watch cartoons, Tom and Jerry on a VCR, I knew the episodes by heart.
My point is that the world was easier with less things to think about and still, I wanted to grow up faster, to become an adult. If only had I known... :D I cherish those memories, they are the ones that visit my dreams the most, I can only be thankful for the amazing childhood I had, the days I spent in fresh air, my medicine for bruises was the medical leafs I picked up, my education from my grandparents giving me knowledge I could never learn in school.
Childhood is a wonderful time and nobody should be robbed of it, a kid can learn anything and not take it as worrisome, learning different plants and mushrooms was fun for me and I still remember them, learning doesn't mean growing up. Bad experiences do that, they take the naive attitude out, the innocence away. Those things should be postponed and no kid should ever experience bad before his time. There is time to learn harsh life lessons, but it is not the time of childhood.
Those are my thoughts, my opinion, the way I see it, I grew up wanting to give, because I was given when I was little, that was a thing my grandparents left in me, giving me all the love in the world.
