7.02.2005

Gone Fishing


Middle-Aged Man tagged me. I'm following my normal rules of play: I do not tag anyone else. This post stands alone.

What are the five things you miss about your childhood?

In no particular order...

1. Summer holidays. When I was in elementary school in Korea, I absolutely despised going to school. I couldn't make out what the teacher was saying most of the time (my Korean was shaky after years in London), I didn't know how to communicate without sounding like a freak and none of the homework made any sense (why would you have to underline the 'important' passages of a textbook for your homework?). So even though the school gave me tonnes of homework for the summer, as soon as the bell rang for end of term I would just chuck everything into a corner somewhere at home and go out to play all day and night.

Of course, two days before (and sometimes, even, the day before) the start of school term I would be sitting in the dark, panicking while trying to cobble together the homework (which also consisted of a daily diary detailing the weather for each day). But on one occasion I outdid myself by forgetting the day the term started - I went out to ride my bicycle as usual and saw all these children heading towards the school...!

2. Using my imagination. I miss the flying carpets, flying beds, castles made out of bushes in the garden and princess dresses from lace curtains in my make-believe play. My favourite game was "Let's Pretend". Anywhere was a set and everything was a prop for my fantasy world. I feel I have changed - not necessarily 'grown-up' - into something other than the kid I used to be when I realise how long it has been since I've imagined anything.

3. Playing with my sisters. We always had so much to talk about, too. Sometimes I wonder why we have made the choices we have to be in such different situations, but then, we were always different from each other. I still think my sisters generally understand me better than most other people.

4. Knowing I could be anything I wanted to be. A naive thought, perhaps, but I'd say for a child it is better to have some hopes for the future than none. I changed my mind frequently on what it was I wanted to become later on in life, without giving much thought as to how I would achieve it. Now of course I know better. But perhaps it would not have hurt for me to have been a little bit more daring in my choice of career.

5. Icecream. We used to get cheap lollies from the local shops in London on a hot summer's day. My favourite one was shaped like a foot - it was fun biting off the toes. In Korea I loved eating the old-fashioned 'ice cakes'. They're really more like frozen milk and sweet juice than anything else and have a very clean, refreshing taste. Sometimes when I have the extravagant chocolate chip and almond ice creams here, I feel it is a bit too much. I just want the simple fresh taste of ice to cool me.

12:21 AM |