playground.

I miss the playground. I miss the colourfulness of it, how lively and hyper you feel when approaching it.

 I miss the long adventurous slide. I miss going down one, laying on your back and going through darkness while feeling anxious about reaching the bottom, wondering what you will see or who you will meet at the end. It didn't feel that special when i was young, but now i deeply wish i could go back to those playground days.

I miss the swings.I miss how powerful i felt while moving my legs back and forth to control the height, swinging as high as i could. I used to reach a comfortable level and when i gathered enough guts and courage, i would jump off. Yes, jump OFF the swing, pretend to be a bird and fly, fly high into the sky and land gracefully like a panther. It was amazing. I had a friend who did it with me. We used to compete who could jump the furthest away from the swing. I would sometimes win. But oh what a wonderful invention, the swings. It's a place where you can chill with a friend and have a nice chat about your crushes and favourite movies. Or even become a rebel and stand up on the swing and try to swing real high. Or twist the chains round and around until it's too tight, then letting go and you get all dizzy afterwards. Yeah it was dangerous. But being a kid, that's why it was fun.

I miss the monkey bars. Oh wow, they were my favourite part of the playground! My hands would get bad blisters from all the friction, but i never cared. I didn't have long arms at first, so i could only skip one bar when i was 9 years old. As my arms grew longer, i could skip TWO bars when going across the monkey bars! It was a huge achievement. The monkey bars and I were great friends. I used to challenge myself to jump off the platform on one side, on to the furthest bar that i could. I think after four years of being a monkey, i succeeded in jumping on to the fifth bar on the monkey bars. It took years of courage, because my friend tried it once and i think he did a back flip in the air and hurt his neck,ouch. But i was tall enough and it felt like a wonderful, incredible achievement. Fascinating.
Oh my God, that was not the only thing that i did on the monkey bars. Since my friends and I were rebels, we climbed ON TOP of the monkey bars! We used to do lots of backflips and front flips and hang upside down while someone holds our hand at the bottom, then we would jump OFF the monkey bars while hanging on with our legs only. IT WAS AWESOME. One of my friends were crazy enough to do it without holding anyone's hand. I was a scaredy cat and never tried it. Oh and other than that i would swing off the monkey bars from standing on top of it, like a monkey swinging from tree to tree. I know it's hard to imagine, so try to imagine one of those gymnasts on those two uneven poles, only i did it on even poles, though without flips. Ah well. I learnt lots of awesome tricks from the monkey bars, it came in handy at English Camp two years ago and everyone was impressed, heheh.

I miss laying back and looking up at the clouds, closing my eyes for a few seconds, and opening them again to find that the clouds moved, like they were playing a game of tag with the wind. How amazing it was to try to guess the shapes of the clouds, what image they were trying to form to us. Sometimes i would reach out and extend my hand, wondering if it was possible to touch it. It wasn't, but i kept hoping there would be a next time.

So why do i suddenly miss the playground?
I miss being a kid. I miss doing all of those exciting things without feeling too old to do so. It felt so right at that time. Life felt like nothing could ever go wrong. Our curiosity, excitement, courage and spirit made us feel like we were special kids who one day will grow up to be amazing. At that time, life was where it was. It felt like I was just stuck in the moment. Sure, i wanted to grow up, but at that time my expectations of the future was probably too good to be true. My friends and i wanted to be wizards,  Jedis, warriors.
I really miss those days.

Living life now, I often see young kids staying indoors, playing with their iPads and laptops instead of going out to play at the playground. It's sad. Don't they realize how much fun they're missing out on? Don't they know that they'll probably never get the same chance to have such fun again? I feel sorry for them.
These days, going past playgrounds and seeing some children still have the excitement in their eyes the way that i did gives me inspiration to keep being positive and  have high spirit like i once did. I want to feel like a kid again, be with people who want the same thing and just spend the rest of the day just BEING A KID.
It's like an energy boost or an inspiration charger for me to keep going with my life and have the strength to face tough times.

I miss being a kid. If you're still a kid, don't waste the time that you have. Go out, go get blisters, go trip over, whatever. Go be a kid :)
And if you think you're too old to be one, then come join the club, LET'S GO TO THE PLAYGROUND :D