Ladies and gentleman, I’d like to take you on a journey. This is one of those “close your eyes and follow me to a part of your mind” situations. Yep, it’s happening. Embrace it.

Do you remember the first thing you ever got excited about when you were younger? For me, it was a bubble-shooting princess wand I had been coveting for months, and my birthday was coming up. I got to invite 20 or so of my closest friends – the closest friends you can have when you’re five – over for my birthday extravaganza. It came time for presents, and, sure enough, Mom showed that she knew what was up. I pulled that wand out of the wrapping paper and ran through the house shooting bubbles at everything. I was finally a real princess.

The following Monday at school, some classmates I wasn’t terribly fond of heard what I got for my birthday and immediately called me a number of hurtful things and said it was a stupid gift.

Here’s the thing about little kids. The little a-hole ones may seem like obstacles, but they really help develop you into who you will become. I told those girls off and explained, in 5-year-old dialogue of course, that I actually had the coolest birthday gift and the best mom. It was then that I realized one part of life is standing up for what you believe in. That’s not to say it’s cool to shove it down people’s throats. That’s not okay. I’ve found that people my age down through incoming freshmen are a generation of being unusual. Everyone has his or her own thing going on. Being “unique like everyone else” is the norm. There has become an excess of “my weird is better than your weird.” There are a lot of things in this world I can’t even pretend to understand, but I never stop myself from being curious, asking questions and being in awe of something that mystifies me. We’ve gotten lazy, and our default is to just write something off as mysterious and leave it at that.

I challenge you to firstly listen to “Pretend” by Lights. Really pay attention to the words and take them into consideration. Now, let yourself be amazed by something. Go out and do something 5-year-old you would be proud of. Be nice to people you don’t know, just for fun. Go play hide-and-seek on Sweetheart Circle. Childhood is over. Sometimes being an adult sucks, but don’t ever let it overwhelm you. We are all transitioning into adulthood at different paces, but there’s no reason to let it kill your joy. Until next week, healings and blessings, y’all.