Caution: Reading this article could make you very sleepy…
Photo by Mia Nogueira
Remember when we were young precious kids? The days used to be less stressful. I remember going to the YMCA camp and playing all the little games we used to play. Games like Capture the Flag, Checkers, Kickball, and Duck Duck Goose. I used to have all the energy in the world, being able to run in circles over and over, screaming bloody murder just because I was able to. Nowadays, I wish I had half of that energy.
If I was given the option to go back to the YMCA right now and just do what I used to do as a kid, I guarantee I would not be able to make it through a day; instead I would be getting exhausted far too easily. I would feel at a loss with my inner child, which is not what I personally want.
All my free time when I was a kid used to be spent playing outside, or staying up and playing the latest Nintendo-64 game. The greatest part is when I woke up, I would go straight back to doing what I wanted to do. I was free. Even when I was in school, I would be playing year-round sports, and was able to do all my energetic activities there. The schoolwork was nowhere near the strenuous amounts I have encountered in high school. I was in love with life in those days.
Nowadays, it seems like most of my free time is spent outside the previously explained environment, not in it. I am always near my video games, but I am never on them as much as I would like to be. I am always on the computer, always tempted to click the icon for Star Wars Battlefront (a video game I love to play on the computer) but I just can’t pull the trigger, so to speak. Instead, on the computer I am doing college applications or writing essays or checking my grades to make sure I am passing my classes.
I am also always around the adventure of nature, but I can never seem to build the courage to just run out the door of my house, or school, and forget working for two hours and romp in the glorious nature of the Earth. It would always be during the middle of the day while I was sitting in a class that was not making any headway on actually enticing me to learn.
Maybe we can have some sort of recess in High School. Last year after the rigorous course of Advanced Placement Government, Teacher Jon Poole took the juniors outside and we had fun playing games. We played a game that was a lot like Duck Duck Goose, and had the same fun factor to it. Maybe we can get a recess teacher or class, involving the gym, but playing the old games we all used to love. Would it be so bad if we had a recess time to get rid of our energy and run around?
Even playing baseball and some soccer through high school, after exulting all my energy into the sport, I would come home and have to worry about school. This is absolutely terrible, because first off I am exhausted after playing two to three hours of a sport, and now I have to do schoolwork? That’s not right. I automatically want to go to sleep and call it a day. It seems that – as my life has progressed – I have been losing more and more sleep, and it worries me.
This leads me to my next topic, which is nap-time. When we were young, we had a certain amount of time set aside out of the day for nap-time. I remember that during this time I could not actually take a nap; I was young, still growing and still energetic. I would simply stare at the ceiling and imagine playing outside. I look back now and imagine myself as a jitterbug. Constantly I would be rolling around like a pig in the mud, not wanting to go to sleep.
Instead of having this nap-time in these early days of high energy, why not implement nap-times in High School, when we really need it? Imagine how rested we high school kids would be. I know I would not be falling asleep anymore in Mark Smith’s history classes. Instead, I could have a nap-time after say, two real classes, and be well-rested and ready for the remainder of the day. Teachers, especially Smith, always talk about being more proficient as high school students. I know if I had a nap-time I would be happier and thus be more proficient in school.
I am feeling a change though, like more of my days should be spent reliving my childhood. I can always pop in a Disney movie with a bunch of friends and relive the days I used to sit and watch these movies over and over till I knew them line for line. Like the Lion King, that movie used to be my favorite. I also want to start getting more of these capture the flag games going with my peers. It is time to relive the days of complete happiness; the days that were free. I cannot wait to have more of these days.
Now there are plenty more things I used to enjoy as a little kid that I could write about, but I think I’ll take a nap…first.
