Maybe you remember the 90’s, maybe you don’t, maybe you weren’t even born yet. Arghh, bambinoo.
We’ll never know why my brain mostly chooses to remember the good stuff or how much it is bending the truth because the good memories just make me feel better, whereas the reality could require a few more years of therapy. Perhaps I’m just becoming old and wise.
Those times at young ages… All fun and games. No real problems to deal with. No need to earn money to buy things. Don’t need to cook and wash clothes. Or think ahead. Easy. On the other hand, you are also made to do what you probably wouldn’t do if you had a choice. Go to places instead of staying in. Do stuff that you don’t want to and don’t do stuff you do want to. But, if you are lucky, this will teach you very valuable lessons and shape your future. So, thank you I guess.
Do I benefit from knowing trees, birds, plants, berries and some basic survival skills like how to make fire and set up a camp? Sure I do. Does it make cooking easier to know how to clean a fish or butcher an animal? Absolutely. Was I unhappy when I had to spend weekends watching people around me harvesting, preparing, preserving and taking care of things that needed being taken care of? Most probably yes. I would also join in but the boring parts didn’t interest me and my skillset didn’t support me being the guy in charge. I can’t really blame them though. My 30kg didn’t really stand a chance against a full grown pig when it came to a stand off.
Instead of that (the real) life, I would have much rather played with my lego, kicked a ball with my friends, climbed trees, played with fire, chased frogs or eventually watched TV or played with a videogame. But, at some point the final words weren’t mine. Outrageous. Can you imagine, the selfish peaches on the tree couldn’t wait one more week to ripen so I could finally have a chance to progress to level 8 at Super Mario Bros? No. We had to go and pick them. And not even that, but then they needed to be dealt with. Wash, sort, process, cook, pack, store. Gosh, so much effort for a jar of jam. Which takes me to the next point.
Being a kid was difficult, you know. You were able to play video games, but there was no saving option?! I mean, hello, what do you mean I need to start from the beginning if my character dies? How is that fair? I lost all my lifelines while I conquered every single opponent in Mortal Kombat just so I can finally arrive to fight the big guy, and I lose in the first punch cause my man was tired? I’m so angry. The world is cheating. I need to now go down, out on the street so I can shout up to my friend on the 4th floor to tell him all about this. Can you imagine? Today I would just send an angry emoji on snapchat and done. No. I had to dress up, go outside, shout my lungs out in front of all the 200 neighbours so he could hear me. Gosh. So. Much. Drama. I may as well just watch TV instead.
Ooo, Dragon Ball, I like that. If you don’t know what it is, let me introduce it to you. Muscles. Food. Training. Energy. Mindset. Sunshine. Bad guys arrive. Good guys win. Repeat. I liked that. And I still do, for even more reasons. For grown(er) ups, Schwarzenegger and Hercules were the muscle man and motivation to begin to train and build stronger physiques, and change their mindset. For me, probably a cartoon (ok, anime, are you happy now?) did that. Unknowingly. It’s only when I look back I realize this. As well as so many other things. They trained a lot. They ate a lot so they could train a lot. They learned about their body and still tried to teach what the right thing was to do. Repeatedly. Boringly slowly. No kidding, a 2min fight took two twenty minute episodes. But then it finally ended. I’m hungry.
Ooo, we have fermented cucumbers in the fridge. Cold, tangy, crispy when you bite it. I love it. Let me find some bread and pate. Ooo, we have that jam from last summer in the fridge as well. Hm, maybe I shall eat some of that too. It’s quite warm today, let me see if I can find some leftover homemade raspberry sorbet (edit: I’m not even sure if it can be called sorbet but a pot of frozen crushed mushy something doesn’t sound that fancy) or some half cut peaches to cool me down. How good is it that these just appear here randomly when I want to eat them? Soo cool.
Ah, wait.
Now, the little snippets of actual memories above may make you think I was a spoiled brat, a lucky kid or just a normal child in a good household. But those events and environment for sure made me the person I am today. Common sense develops when you see people do things that make sense over and over again. Perseverance pays off. And while you are waiting for the payday, you may as well learn a thing or two on the way. Time also gives you a chance to begin to think differently and develop a more effective approach to deal with a problem. This will certainly improve your creativity and will challenge your patience. And the end result? You will still need therapy when you grow up. Or some kind of guidance at least. But! It’s a lot easier to develop yourself when you have a good pool of skills already, than to start to fill up a dried out lake. Sorry, puns are over.
So, I am not sure if the world has changed much in the last 30years, simply I’ve got older and see things differently, the circumstances and everything have changed, or all of the above. Maybe this is also a London effect, and if I was still living in a small town, I would see things differently. But then I guess the games and what’s on the telly would be the same madness. I mean, Cappuccino Assassino sounds funny at first but when something called brainrot becomes the most popular entertainment for children, that rings a bell in my old man brain and really makes me question where the future generations will learn basic survival skills (or just taking care of themselves), patience, perseverance, common sense and all. I don’t even mention being active, because I can’t really see a kid climbing a tree to pick cherries, because one, I can’t see a fruit tree anywhere and two, why would someone make an effort to climb up and get it, when we can buy it in Tesco?
Looking back, I thought adults were constantly interrupting my fun. In reality, all those moments (all the millions of them – I mean, can you believe the rubbish needs to be taken out EVERY. SINGLE. DAY?!) were quietly teaching me how life works. I just wasn’t old enough to notice. And now, when I’m old wise and I walk in the forest and pick some berries from the bushes – or ferment the cucumbers, pickle the onions – I smile and think back of how many cool things that kid learned in those good old 90’s.