Cowabunga!

Photo courtesy of Ryan Quintal (Unsplash)

Dungarees, Kangols, shell suits, Take That, Going Live! Super Mario Bros and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles...

Amidst a roar of laughter from a group of young teenagers who went chattering by, came the exclamation, 'Cowabunga!' 

That one little word, said in all its playful glee, brought memories bouncing back, of my teenage years, my long-missed memories of youth. Long summer days playing with my friends, sleepovers, midnight feasts and Saturday night pizzas. The days when teachers and parents alike would tell us that our teenage years would be the best years of our life. How I scoffed at such nonsense. What do they know of being a teenager, I thought back then; teenagers have lots of homework every night, other people's rules to follow, no money, and perhaps worst of all (for me, anyway), acne! Adults, on the other hand, can do what they want, when they want, and they have ‘loads’ of money to buy clothes, a car, a house....and no acne.

Looking back, oh how I laugh at my own child-like naivety because as an adult now, I realise they were absolutely right. The teenage years are hard, but they were the best years of my life. How blissful it would be to not have to worry about the seemingly endless conveyor belt of bills, a mortgage, red tape...getting old! How nice it would be to have meals cooked for me every day, all my washing done, the house cleaned and a personal taxi service...all at no cost. And what about cars, clothes, holidays? Well, the last time I checked my bank account I had very little left to splurge on such luxuries, so the truth I was so convinced was real when I was a teenager was nothing but a myth!

But then again...the myth was true to a limited degree. 

Rules and regulations, dictated by society and those around us, follow us wherever and whoever we are. We cannot escape that truth, but as adults we have choices. If we are in a relationship, work, personal or otherwise, and are not happy with it, we can choose to leave any time we want. Psychologically we may feel we have no choice but to remain, maybe because of financial commitments, or we are able to see the bigger picture, therefore creating the incentive to put up with everything we hate until another opportunity comes our way. But the decision to remain is always a choice we make; there is always another way, be it more or less unpleasant.

What of money, you say? Well, it's true that some of us have more of it than others, but of the money we do have, we decide how to spend it, wisely or not. Sure, there are financial commitments we make that forces us to allocate a certain amount of our cash to them, but again, much of it is a choice we make - how big a chunk we set aside for financial commitments such as housing, savings, pensions, how much we will allocate for food, clothes, holidays, and that rainy day,  

With the years also comes wisdom, maybe not to the degree I would like (I am only human after all) but we all have more than we did when we were children. We are wise to the world and how it operates, wise to the good and the bad, wise to old tricks and bad habits. 

But for all our wisdom, for all our freedom, we have forgotten something important, something children have yet to forget; the importance of living in the Now and enjoying every moment of life, big and small. So forget about the bills once in a while, forget about your figure, forget what other people will say and think and just salute the child we all still have inside us.

Cowabunga!