Kids, or as Emerson put it, those "curly dimpled lunatics," don't have half the opportunities us "big people" have. Yet, in many ways, I still wish I could be a kid forever.
One of the major advantages of being a kid is the dating situation. While young adults and grownups worry about relationship issues, kids worry about who is or isn't on their significant other list. Just ask your average kid on the playground to tell you who his/her girlfriend/boyfriend is. Heck, I'd be surprised if they weren't able to ramble off seven or eight different names right off the top of their heads. That wouldn't include the seven or eight more that they would be "dating" tomorrow. They even get to choose who they like. I mean, it doesn't matter if Suzy doesn't pick Billy for her boyfriend, she sure the heck can still be on his list.
Kids are straightforward. When it comes to friends or enemies, there's no holding back. This is a convenient way of dealing with things. It never leads to mixed emotions or little white lies -- not to mention that it completely and utterly rids them of any chance of peer pressure. If they don't want to do something and another kid is picking on them for it, they tell them to "knock it off, you poop head." Most teenage kids could learn a lesson or two from the "youngins."
Kids can do the most amazing things, too. When I was a kid, I used to slam-dunk over the head of Michael Jordan, strike out Kirby Puckett until I got bored, and even better yet, perform onstage with Paula Abdul herself. I can't even think of the last time I was able to excel to those superstar abilities. It was possible to imagine it all when I was a kid. Why can't I pull it off anymore?
The reason why these fun games tend to disappear with age is that we become realists. Now I've been accused of being an idealist many times, so who knows? Maybe I still have a lot of kid left in me. But in general, we become more corrupted by the world around us. We learn lessons, and these lessons tighten the noose on what we believe to be feasible.
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Grownups spend time dreaming about scuba diving off the shores of Hawaii. Kids just simply use their imagination and turn their plastic, refillable swimming pool into Hawaii with their cat playing the role of a vicious tiger prowling the territory.
When's the last time you went outside to just spin in a circle or take a lap around the house to get out your excess energy? I dare you to imagine the impossible. I dare you to do more than revisit your childhood days. I dare you to relive them and remind yourself of how wonderful it is to be a true idealistic lunatic.
Kyle Eichman is a graduate from Rochester Lourdes High School. To respond to reviews in Sound &; Vision, call 252-1111, category TEEN (8336); write Teen Beat, Post-Bulletin, P.O. Box 6118, Rochester, MN 55903-6118 or send e-mail to teenbeat@postbulletin.com.
