On Being a Kid

So I'm currently with my parents visiting my cousins who live near Vassar.
(Needless to say, my semester's done. That's cool.)

There's my sweet young aunt, my funny young uncle, and their three boys ages 6,8, and 11 who are all funny, super-smart, crazy, and total sweet-hearts. I love being around all five.

Last night, I slept on dinosaur sheets... This morning I played 2 on 2 basketball with them and made some sweet 3-pointers!

In other words, I'm adopting the life of a 9-year-old boy, and I love it. It's something we should all get back to sometimes--it's simple. The rules of life are simple. Don't steal the ball when it's not your turn, try hard, laugh a lot, run around, and sometimes you've just got to have a wrestle fight in the grass even if some people don't like it.

Being around the three boys reminded me just how much kids are real people. I think as we get older we tend to forget that.

This afternoon they were fascinated by my digital camera (hell, it fascinates me too--uh, I mean, "well," not "hell"; I can't sweart here!) and I let them use it and take pictures (close-ups of my feet, anyone? sure!). Then I took a few videos of them with the video function and they watched them over and over again.

I love these kids, basically, and I'm glad I have the privilege of watching them grow up and growing up with them--or I guess now I'm growing down.

And it's good.

I hope everyone is either finishing exams/papers well or enjoying their first few days home. Take a risk, be wild, act like the kid you still are. 18 or 19 means nothing.

-aRCHEL