I’m not always sure it’s a good thing but people always tell me I don’t act my age. Now I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to act because to me I’m just being myself and truthfully it took me a long time to accept myself and all my quirks and idiosyncrasies. I was always trying to fit in….fit in to a group or fit in to a ideal. I don’t even remember when it was but I finally just embraced who I was and really that’s just a kid at heart.

I tell my wife that I was more mature at 18 than I am now in my 50’s. Thankfully she has also accepted me although I think she becomes exasperated with my behavior sometimes as she often complains that I “act like a kid” or that our young adult son is more mature than I am. Sometimes I think she wishes that the man she married would act like a maturing adult, but truthfully we balance each other out as she tends to be more serious.

Truth is I do often act with a kid like view on the world. Everything is so serious that I tend to look for and embrace the whimsical, the funny and the absurd. I look for laughs throughout the day and most importantly I try to make others laugh even at my own expense as I tend to have a self-depracating way of poking fun of myself and situations I’m in.

Beyond that I still enjoy doing kid like activities. For instance, I always keep a frisbee in the back of my car and I’m always asking people to throw it around with me. They usually look at me funny and they remark they haven’t done that in years but if they do join me in a toss they are soon laughing and having a blast.

Last spring I bought a kite, a spiderman kite. Now I really have no deep affection for Spiderman, I just wanted to fly a kite and I thought it would be cool and fun to fly a Spiderman kite. And so there I stood in my front yard on windy spring days flying my kite as my neighbors drove by. I like to think my behavior doesn’t really draw attention as my neighbors are used to my goofy ways but I’m sure it does. I really don’t even care what other people think anymore, which is truly one of the advantages of growing old….I just like to have fun and what’s more fun than being a kid so I fly kites and throw frisbees around. I goof off endlessly and see humor in situations where others don’t.

It also helps to find a kindred spirit so I’ll leave you with one last example. I had a co-worker who would laugh and roll her eyes at some of my kid-like behavior but she would also join in my antics. One time we were leaving work and walking to our cars in the parking lot. As it happened our vehicles were parked directly next to each other and so I naturally challenged her to a race to our cars…..she rolled her eyes and remarked much to my dismay that she wasn’t going to accept my challenge and then a few seconds later she took off running shouting over her shoulder

“last one there is a rotten egg”…..

“you brat”….I yelled after her now trailing by a good 5 feet, a distance I never made up as she arrived touching her car seconds before me. We stood there panting and laughing uncontrollably for at least a minute, each enjoying the others behavior before we climbed in our cars and headed home to our families to start adulting again. As I said before….it’s nice to find a kindred spirit.

So be a kid again….it’s fun and not very many others are doing it so you’ll stand out and maybe bring back some wonderful memories of days gone by

Peace and Love…..like, share, comment or subscribe and thanks for stopping by