The Good O'l Days

Back in the old days my neighborhood was crawling with little kids. Every house on the street was either for sale or exploding with young couples just starting out a family. On warm summer days all of the dads would go off to work and the moms would congregate outside. All of the kids would be out in the back yards flitting from neighbor to neighbor. We could never not be moving around. We had children of all ages. We had high school kids, who were grate for babysitting on a Saturday night, we had middle school kids, who were running around with water guns, Elementary kids, who were always playing soccer, and toddlers in the sandbox. There was always an adult outside, so our parents never worried about their little tykes running loose through the yards.
Now all of that is changing. All of the big siblings, who were in high school way back when, are now off starting families and getting jobs. The big brothers that used to be in middle school are now off away at college. Eager young adults excited about life. And the rest of us elementary kids and toddlers are still stuck in middle school and high school. Just waiting for that day we all get to leave the nest and start our own life. But even with all the hope and excitement for the future I believe most of us wish we could be living in the past.
With all of the stress of school and work I wish I were back in preschool again. Running around in my swimming suit from the first day of summer all the way up to the last. Life was good back then. Carefree. I could wake up at seven o’clock in the morning and not come home until seven at night and no one would wonder where I was or what I was doing. I could sleep over at a friend’s house watching Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, wishing with all my might I would wake up and be a princess. Anything was possible, and anything that was possible, we would do.
Oh, what a life we had back then. I would do anything to go back, and live it over again.
(375 words)